TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold junior Banro Corporation hopes to conclude a process to arrange debt finance for its Twangiza project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, by early June 2010, the company said on Monday.

Banro announced in September that it had appointed Standard Chartered as the exclusive debt finance adviser for the project.

The firm has bought a gold plant, which is currently being refurbished in Australia and will be shipped to Mombasa, in Kenya, and then transported by road to the Twangiza site, where it will be erected and commissioned.

Design work for the enhanced throughput of the plant from one-million tons a year to 1,3-million tons has been completed, and the necessary additional parts will be manufactured and shipped from South Africa, Banro said.

The company plans to start mobilising equipment at Twangiza by year-end, so that construction activities begin in February 2010, following the peak rainy season.

The firm still expects to complete the first phase of the Twangiza project and pour the first gold in late December 2011.

Banro expects that annual production from the phase-one plant will be between 80 000 oz and 110 000 oz a year, at a total operating cost of less than $400/oz, it said in August.

Shares in the company declined 1,75% on Monday, to C$2,25 apiece by 15:59 in Toronto.