Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Besra has reopened its Bong Mieu mine, in Vietnam, marking the return of operations.
“We are very pleased to announce that Bong Mieu will now restart operations after what has been a particularly difficult period in our company’s history,” said Besra CEO Jon Seton.
He noted that the company was hit by two typhoons late last year, followed by severe tropical rains which destroyed the access road to the site and caused significant damage to the operation.
“After more than six months of hard work by our staff and contractors, we will be restarting mining operations shortly, with the plant and production ramping up to normal levels in the following months,” Seton said.
He pointed out that the dewatering of the underground mine was 95% complete, and would be fully completed within the next few days. Mining equipment had also been transported back to site, and some 45 employees were currently working on site, with a further 300 to be called back by the end of June.
The ASX-, TSX- and Frankfurt-listed company has previously reported that it would likely produce between 31 000 oz and 34 000 oz of gold during the full year, instead of the previous estimate of between 40 000 oz and 45 000 oz.
The miner was also continuing to pursue its property loss and business interruption insurance claim from the typhoon damage.