Acacia back up to speed in Tanzania

Acacia Mining is Tanzania’s biggest gold producer and operates three major mines there — Bulyanhulu, Buzwagi (pictured) and North Mara. (Image courtesy of Acacia Mining)

Acacia Mining (LON:ACA) on Tuesday announced the successful restart of operations at its Bulyanhulu gold mine in Tanzania.

Acacia, majority owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold (TSX, NYSE:ABX) said the process plant at Bulyanhulu, one of three mines in operates in the East African country is now operating at normal throughput levels.

“Further work will be carried out during a planned plant shutdown in Q4 2016 with a full bearing housing replacement to be installed during 2017 to provide a life of mine solution,” the company HQ’ed in London announced.

Acacia said guidance for Bulyanhulu remains unchanged and is and at a group level it continues to expect third quarter production to be broadly in line with Q1 2016, with unchanged full year production guidance of at least 780,000 ounces of gold.

Barrick Gold is reported to be in talks to sell its 64%-steak in Acacia and could receive around $1.9 billion for the company, which also has exploration projects in Tanzania and other African countries.

The potential buyers named by Reuters sources are Harmony Gold Mining Co Ltd, Sibanye Gold Ltd, AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, Randgold & Exploration Co and Gold Fields Ltd, all of them based in South Africa. It is said that some unnamed Australian and North American miners could also be interested in the African company.

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