African gold junior down 20 per cent

Banro Corportion (TSX:BAA), a Canadian gold company operating in Democratic Republic of the Congo, lost 21.59% today ending at $1.79. Its 52-week range is $1.73 to $5.48.

On Wednesday it announced that its CEO was stepping down immediately and today it announced heavy rains played havoc with its production schedule.

Simon Village has been replaced by Dr. John Clarke, interim CEO and president.

Today it announced that its access road  for its Naomoya project has been severely damaged by heavy rains, which will hinder plant equipment delivery and create a cost overrun of up to 15% on the base cost of US$185 million.

Scheduled gold production has been deferred to Q3 of 2013.

The company tried to build confidence in today’s news release.

“We want to reassure our shareholders, business partners, community stakeholders and our employees that Banro intends to continue with business as usual following the corporate changes which have taken place and were announced in yesterday’s press release,” commented Dr. John Clarke, Interim President and CEO.

“We are intensely focused on our operations with our main priority of getting the Twangiza Mine up to its operating capacity and ensuring gold production at the levels at Twangiza which we anticipated when we undertook the decision to transition from an exploration company into a mining company. Concurrently with our plans for Twangiza, we will continue our aggressive schedule for the development of Namoya with the objective of first gold before the end of 2013.”

barro resources namoya Congo Dem Rep of Africa gold