TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Banro Corporation, which owns gold prospects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, still expects to complete a prefeasibility study on its Namoya project next month, followed by a full feasibility study on the Twangiza operation in January, the company said on Friday.

The prefeasibility and full feasibility studies are being undertaken by Senet Engineering, with input from a number of independent consultants, including SRK Consulting.

However, now that the drilling programmes for both studies have been completed, the company will halt all other drilling activities, which represent a large portion of the firm's operating costs, and will also look at other ways to reduce spending.

“In response to continuing global financial developments, the company is scaling back its operations to conserve cash,” Toronto-based Banro explained in an emailed statement.

Exploration efforts going forward will focus on the delineation of new mineral prospects which have been identified at its Twangiza, Lugushwa and Namoya projects and within its 14 exploration permits.

This will involve gridding, mapping and soil, stream and rock sampling, which will not involve any significant spending, Banro said.

Mining and exploration companies around the world are reducing capital spending and taking various steps to conserve cash, as commodity prices weaken and financing options dry up.

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