South Africa police standoff with illegal gold miners escalates
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B2Gold Corp. (TSX:BTO)(OTCQX:BGLPF) (“B2Gold” or the “Company”) reports a temporary shutdown of the underground workings at the Limon Mine in Nicaragua due to on-going rescue attempt of a missing worker during heavy rains and mine flooding.
On June 18, 2011 at approximately 4:30pm the Limon Mine, located in Nicaragua, suffered a force majeure event when heavy rains caused the underground mine workings to begin flooding. The heavy flooding caused the mine to be evacuated and one person remains unaccounted for at this time. B2Gold continues to work on drawing the water down in the mine to attempt a rescue mission of the missing person. The Company is working with competent authorities, including the Ministry of Labor (MITRAB), Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), Ministry of the Environment (MARENA), National Police, Fire Department and municipal government. The underground workings at the mine will be shut down during the rescue attempt and afterwards during an inspection and approval by the competent authorities. The mill continues to process ore from the existing stockpile.
The Limon Mine is located approximately 100 kilometres (“km”) northwest of Managua and 20 km from the Pan-American Highway. The Company holds an indirect 95% interest in Triton Minera S.A. (“Triton”), which owns and operates the Limon Mine, and holds eight other mineral concessions, all at an exploration stage.
The current operation at the Limon Mine is a 1,000 tonne per day underground and open pit gold mine, which currently has an estimated mine life of five years. Total production for 2010 from Limon Mine was approximately 40,125 ounces of gold.
