With commissioning at an advanced stage G-Resources is about to undertake the first gold pour at the Martabe Gold-Silver Project in northern Sumatra. The company’s chief executive officer Peter Albert says the milestone is on schedule to be achieved by the end of July. 

In an interview with The ASIA Miner editor John Miller (see www.asiaminer.com), Peter Albert says the first pour will depend on the commissioning process, which is going extremely well. “We are processing ore at present and are through the crushers, through the mills and in to the CIL. There have been few commissioning challenges of any major kind at this point.”

He says this is a defining moment for the company as it is something the team has been working on for three years as G-Resources. “The project itself has been in development for a number of years, through exploration, feasibility studies and into construction.

“It will be the first major non-coal mining project in Indonesia for almost a decade. A project of this size, annually producing 250,000 ounces of gold and 2-3 million ounces of silver, puts it up there as a world-class project as well as a world-scale project.

“For Indonesia as a whole, bringing in a new mining project of this size is a great signal to the mining industry in the country and a great signal for foreign involvement in Indonesia’s mining sector. Locally, there is very little other labour-intensive industrial or manufacturing activity apart from palm oil production and tea plantations so this will have a major positive impact on the economics, welfare, well-being and wealth of the local region as well as the province of North Sumatra.

“So everyone is very excited about the prospect of a new mine coming into production and we have has tremendous support right across the board,” he adds.

The project is established under a sixth generation Contract of Work (COW) signed in April 1997. The COW defines all of the terms, conditions and obligations of both G-Resources and the Government of Indonesia for the life of the COW.

Martabe, with a resource base of 7.86 million ounces of gold and 73.48 million ounces of silver, is G-Resources Group’s core starter asset, around which a globally competitive, Asia-Pacific focused gold company will be built. Martabe is expected to commence production at the Purnama pit at an annual rate of 250,000 ounces of gold and 2-3 million ounces of silver at an anticipated life of mine cash cost in the lowest quartile for global gold producers.

G-Resources is seeking to grow gold production through exploration success on the large and highly prospective COW area and through acquisition of other quality gold assets.

Hear the interview in full by visiting www.asiaminer.com and clicking on the link on the home page.