JOHANNESBURG (Business Day) -- Canadian- and JSE-listed gold miner Great Basin Gold [TSX:GBG] had entered into a joint venture with a private Mozambican company to explore for gold on a 12km^2 property 80km south of Manica, it said yesterday.
It will be the second South African-listed company to move into Mozambique's gold sector.
Pan African Resources [LSE:PAF], which took a secondary listing on the JSE this week, also has a gold property 4km north of the town of Manica on which exploration is at prefeasibility study stage. Pan African expects its Manica project will be Mozambique's first gold mine.
Great Basin's and Pan African's properties lie on a gold belt that has been worked in the past by small-scale and artisanal miners.
Great Basin is building the Burnstone gold mine near Johannesburg and the Hollister project in Nevada in the US. It is also exploring for gold in Alaska and Tanzania. Great Basin's partner in Mozambique, GS Minas E Refinaria Limitade (GSR), owns the rights to the Tsetsera property.
Great Basin will have an 80% interest in the joint venture and will spend $2 million over three years on exploring it. It also has the exclusive right to explore on other properties on which GSR holds mineral rights.
If the Tsetsere project progresses to a mine, the partners will contribute proportionately to the costs.
Great Basin said rock samples taken during a field visit showed grades of between 0.22g of gold a ton and 26.8g/t, but no exploration work has been carried out on the property.
Great Basin president and CEO Ferdi Dippenaar said this move was in line with the group's strategy of becoming a regional player in southern Africa.
There would be synergies between the Tsetsere venture and Great Basin's Rusaf project in Tanzania as both projects could be run from Great Basin's office in Tanzania.
Great Basin recently concluded an agreement to buy 40% of the shares of Rusaf, which owns an exploration property in Russia as well as three areas in southwestern Tanzania and in its Lake Victoria region.
Great Basin fell 6c to R20.07 (US$2.83) on the JSE yesterday.
