[miningmx.com] — GOLD One International is about to add First
Uranium’s Ezulwini mine to its portfolio of assets, as CEO Neal Froneman says the
company may announce more acquisitions before the end of the year.
Releasing quarterly figures on Monday, the company said Ezulwini would add 15,000
ounces to its output for the remainder of 2012. Gold One announced in February its
intentions to buy Ezulwini from First Uranium for $70m, a transaction expected to
be finalised before the end of this week.
The additional ounces from Ezulwini would help to make up for the losses from Gold
One’s existing flagship mine, Modder East, where a major part of its workforce had
been retrenched due to an illegal strike during the June-quarter.
Froneman said Modder East would only hit its pre-strike levels by September.
Subsequently, the group’s output guidance was revised to 55,000 oz for the third
quarter and 70,000 for the fourth, with the full-year guidance revised down from
300,000 oz to 265,000 oz (inclusive of Ezulwini’s contribution).
“It’s is not as easy as one thinks to bring a mine back to full production when you
bring on a new workforce,’ Froneman said.
Another priority for the next quarter is the continued turnaround programme at the
Cooke underground operations, acquired with the takeover of Rand Uranium – which
contributed 26,041 oz during the quarter under review – up 12% quarter-on-
quarter, while cash costs were marginally down from $1,513/oz to $1,438/oz.
The contribution from the Randfontein surface operations were up 42% to 10,370
oz, with cash costs down from $1,388/oz to $1,000/oz.
Froneman reiterated that the company was targeting one million ounces per year
from around 2015, of which 400,000 oz would be accounted for from existing assets
and another 600,000 from acquisitions.
“We’ve got a team focusing on corporate development and I would be delighted if we
can announce another transaction in the third quarter,’ he said. “Obviously, I can’t
make any promises at this stage.’
He said future acquisition would likely be prime producing assets not in need of
fixing. “We have a strong growth pipeline and enough turn-around on our plate,’
Froneman said.
