JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Council of Ministers has approved London-listed Mwana Africa’s renegotiated contract with L’Office des Mines d’Or de Kilo-Moto (Okimo).

The resources company told shareholders in a statement on Wednesday that it would now establish a joint-venture (JV) company with Okimo, to be called Newco, which would hold the mining titles for its Zani-Kodo gold project, in the DRC.

Mwana would retain its 80% shareholding in the JV, with State-owned gold company Okimo holding the remaining stake of 20%.

It would make one-off payments totalling $600 000 to Okimo and to the DRC mining registry once the JV is created, which would include payments for the transfer of mining titles to Newco and the settlement of disputes with the registry over surface fees accrued since 2006.

Meanwhile, the resources company announced that an initial Joint Ore Reserve Committee-compliant resource for the Zani-Kodo project had been calculated by independent consultancy BMRE.

The project had an indicated resource of just over two-million tons of gold at 2,9 g/t, with an inferred resource of 3,16-million tons of gold at 2,57 g/t.

“We are pleased to be able to announce our first resource estimate based on our initial exploration at the Zani-Kodo gold prospect. Indications are, that only limited additional drilling is required to upgrade the majority of the inferred resource to indicated,” commented Mwana CEO Kalaa Mpinga.

He noted that these results were based on the drilling of only 700 m of an estimated 9-km strike length.

“Together with the nearby Moto Goldmines and AngloGold concessions, the prospect represents one of the world’s major undeveloped gold resources.  The approval by the DRC Council of Ministers of our joint-venture agreement with Okimo is a further step towards realising the potential of this exciting gold prospect,” added Mpinga.