Lencourt, Billiton could develop gold projects in Zaire

Billiton is the minerals arm of the Royal Dutch Shell Group of The Hague, Netherlands.

Earlier this year, Lencourt signed an option agreement with Cofimines, a Belgian company, to acquire a majority interest in several gold projects and undeveloped mineral concessions held through a company called Sominki of Kinshasa, Zaire.

Sominki owns and operates tin and gold mines in the Kivu province of eastern Zaire. Production in 1988 was about 2,600 tonnes of tin concentrates and 20,000 oz of gold. This year, Sominki plans to produce the same amounts of gold and tin, as well as minor amounts of tantalum, tungsten and monazite concentrates.

Sominki also owns a number of mineral concessions with undeveloped tin, tantalum and gold deposits within a 100,000-sq-km area. One of these is a gold project called Twangiza.

The recent agreement with Billiton concerns the Twangiza gold project, which is reported to host some 615,000 oz of gold in proven reserves totalling 4.1 million tons at a grade of 0.15 oz gold per ton. An initial payment of $50,000 to secure the Twangiza option has been made by Billi ton, with a second $200,000(US) payment due to Lencourt by July 31.

The agreement with Billiton will allow Lencourt to make “a major step forward toward becoming a mine operator in Zaire, while at the same time retaining a royalty interest in the Twangiza gold project,” said President Ross Lawrence.

The exercise date of the Billiton option is mid-September, and the exercise price is $5 million, representing a cash advance on the 2.5% net smelter return payment from Twangiza. All of the above are subject to various conditions including approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange, and the respective boards of directors of the companies.

Lencourt is currently making detailed investigations in Zaire to confirm ore reserves, audit financial statements and settle certain legal matters concerning title.

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