Shanta Gold, the East Africa-focused gold producer, has announced its audited final results for the year ended 31 December 2020 for its East African assets, including the New Luika Gold Mine and the Singida Project in Tanzania and the West Kenya Project in Kenya
The company currently has defined ore resources at the New Luika Gold Mine and the Singida Project and holds exploration licenses covering approximately 1,100sq km in the country. Shanta Gold also owns the West Kenya Project, with defined ore resources of 1.2 Mt grading 12.6 g/t and holds approximately
1,121sq km wholly-owned exploration licenses and 40sq km partially owned licenses in the country.
Shanta’s flagship New Luika Gold Mine commenced production in 2012 and produced 82,978 ounces in 2020. The company has been admitted to trading on London’s AIM market and has approximately 1,048 million shares in issue.
As the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly across the globe, Shanta was quick to implement safety protocols across its operations while increasing critical inventories at New Luika and forging new partnerships to prevent disruption to the operations. As a result, New Luika had another steady year of production and costs were within guidance. It expanded the plant towards the end of the year to allow for the processing of lower grade ore.
Anthony Durrant, chairman, stated, “In 2021, Shanta will benefit from a strong balance sheet and operations generating healthy cash flows. We are now investing in the largest exploration programme in Shanta’s history with six drill rigs currently operating in parallel across three projects which we expect to extend mine life and provide growth.”
