Tanzanian Royalty has announced that it was the successful bidder for the Buckreef Gold Mine Re-development Project in northern Tanzania.
Under the signed, binding heads of agreement with the State Mining Corporation of Tanzania (Stamico), Tanzanian Royalty will have the right to earn a 55% interest in the Buckreef Project, with Stamico holding the balance. A Definitive Joint Venture Agreement governing ownership and management of the Buck Reef properties is expected to be signed in due course.
“company builder that will move Tanzanian Royalty into the league of gold producers at a time when gold prices are breaking out and the future for precious metals has never looked better.”
According to James E. Sinclair, Chairman and CEO of Tanzanian Royalty, "The Company's fiscal position has never been better and we intend to fast track development of the Buckreef Project with a view to achieving commercial production within a period of 30 months or less."
The Buckreef Gold Mine Re-development Project as presently constituted is an advanced stage gold exploration project containing measured gold resources of 265,000 ounces, indicated resources of 444,000 ounces and inferred resources of 826,000 ounces. This mineral resource estimate was prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 standards of disclosure for mineral projects.
Mr. Sinclair describes the Buckreef Project as a "company builder that will move Tanzanian Royalty into the league of gold producers at a time when gold prices are breaking out and the future for precious metals has never looked better."
A total of 15 licenses are included in the project area which he said "exhibit potential to substantially boost the resource base at Buckreef, providing the foundation for raising production rates on an incremental basis in the future."
Joseph Kahama, the Company's Tanzania-based President, predicted that the partnership with Stamico "will become a template for other mining companies operating in the country" and he added that the benefits to the Tanzanian people "will be tangible and long lasting."
"In the shorter term, we also see potential to mine and process surface gravels at Buckreef which will serve to augment anticipated gold output from our Kigosi and Lunguya projects, both of which will have modular type gravity plants operating on them in 2011," he noted.
The Buckreef Project is located approximately 115 kilometres southwest of Mwanza on Lake Victoria and covers the eastern portion of the Rwamagaza Greenstone Belt, one of several Archean greenstone belts lying within the Tanzanian Craton of east Africa.
The Buckreef area has a long history of small-scale mining and exploration work, most of which was undertaken by the United Nations, the Tanzanian Mineral Resources Division, Williamson Diamonds and Iamgold Corporation which brought the Buckreef property to its current stage of exploration and development.
Gold mineralization at Buckreef was developed along a prominent fault zone that ranges from five to 30 metres in width. Finely disseminated pyrite occurs in a halo surrounding pervasive quartz veining, the extent of which is directly related to the grade of the gold mineralization present. In several areas, drilling has confirmed the existence of higher grade gold mineralization at depth and a number of high priority regional exploration targets remain to be followed up.
Qualified Person
The Company's Qualified Person, Mr. Peter Zizhou, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release. Mr. Zizhou is the Exploration Manager of Tanzanian Royalty Exploration Corporation Limited. He has a Master of Science (Exploration Geology) degree from the University of Zimbabwe (2000) and is a registered scientist with SACNASP (Reg. No.400028/08).
Source: Tanzanian Royalty