Ghana-based mining contractor BCM Group has picked up a US$400 million, nine-year contract at KEFI Gold and Copper’s proposed $340 million Tulu Kapi gold project in Ethiopia.
KEFI is targeting a production start next year at Tulu Kapi, where BCM is already providing bulk earthworks and drilling services. The mining contract was signed at the first Ethio-British Investment Forum in London, attended by Ethiopia’s foreign affairs minister Gedion Timothewos Hessebon.
KEFI’s most recent feasibility study outlined a plan to produce an average 166,000 ounces of gold per annum for the first seven years of operation, peaking at 227,000oz in year four.
BCM Group, which said last year it was generating more than $300 million a year from mining and civil construction services, with about 2500 employees, is buying a Caterpillar mining fleet for use at Tulu Kapi.
KEFI executive chairman Harry Anagnostaras-Adams said mining was already Ethiopia’s leading export-generating sector, “yet the industry is only beginning to unlock its vast potential”.
