JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold explorer Nyota Minerals said on Thursday that, following submissions to renew the exploration licences for the Towcester and Brantham projects, in western Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines has taken the decision not to renew any licence areas or to issue new exploration licences that would be affected by the developing Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam, along the Nile river.
This primarily affected the Towcester licence, where the rationale for the renewal of the Gombo block was to conduct exploration and prospecting in support of the proposed mechanised mining of the alluvial deposits that would be inundated by the rising water level.
As a result, while the exploration licence for the Towcester project had been renewed, the exploration area had now been reduced from 1 002 km2 to 48 km2.
Similarly, the exploration licence for the Brantham project was also renewed, but had narrowed the exploration area from 1 346 km2 to 717 km2.
Nyota noted that the new licences kept intact the North West-South East lineament of anomalies within the Brantham area and preserved for Nyota the extension of that lineament in the Towcester licence; which was particularly important as this was immediately adjacent to the Boka West target.
“However, the remainder of the Towcester licence has either been relinquished or was not renewed,” it stated.
The miner added that the application for a mining licence, submitted in the name of Towcester for the conversion of a portion of the exploration licence as it was in April 2014, remained unaffected by the decision not to renew or to issue exploration licences for any areas that would be affected by the rising water of the dam.
“Indeed, the intent of this application and its timeliness was precisely because the river gravels will be submerged and their value otherwise lost.
“The application is still being considered by the Ministry of Mines and, as is necessary, by other government departments. Those deliberations are internal and Nyota cannot, therefore, report progress with the application,” it reported.
Nyota, meanwhile, continued to review new opportunities as they arose.