East Africa-focused gold producer, developer and explorer Shanta Gold (AIM: SHG) announced its production and operational results for the year ended 31 December 2022.
The update covers its East African assets, including New Luika Gold Mine and Singida Project (“Singida”) in Tanzania and West Kenya Project in Kenya.
Shanta’s CEO Eric Zurrin commented: “The past year has been a successful one for Shanta, with our financial performance improving year on year, strong operational progress being made across all three of our assets and most importantly, the team maintaining our excellent safety record. An encouraging end to the year saw the Company finish with gold production of 65,209 ounces at New Luika, up 18% from the prior year. Elsewhere, the Singida Project is nearing completion on time and on budget, and we are set for the first gold pour in March 2023. This is a transformational moment for Shanta, as the Company transitions to a 100,000-ounce-per-year gold producer. The Project will quickly move from being a cost centre to a cash generator and further allow us to reinvest into exploration elsewhere in the portfolio.”
2022 Operational Highlights
NEW LUIKA
-2022 saw several operating achievements at the New Luika gold mine which include a record annual throughput of 874,703 tonnes milled, which represents a 6% increase from 2021, and gold production of 65,209 ounces, up 18% from the previous year, and 4% below the annual production target of 68,000 oz. This near miss can be attributed to operational challenges seen at New Luika, where steps have been taken to decrease operational risk.
-Extension of current reserve life at New Luika Gold Mine, now through Q1 2028, following successful exploration programmes on an optimised budget in 2022, adding a further 92,500 oz of contained reserves.
SINGIDA
-The Singida Project is 90% complete as of the end of December 2022, on budget and on
track for the first production in March 2023
-Singida increases Group production by 45-50% to approximately 100,000 oz pa;
-In 2022, geological mapping, regional soil sampling, geophysics reinterpretation and district target generation were completed that significantly enhancing the Singida upside potential for mine life extension.
