Perth, Australia-based Anvil Mining (AVM-T) is moving personnel back to its Dikulushi copper-silver mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, now that a conflict in the village of Kilwa, 45 km away, has been resolved.
The company expects operations to resume shortly, and is in talks with the government aimed at providing additional security for the mine so that if a similar incident occurs again it would not affect operations.
Earlier this month, mining at Dikulushi was suspended and 75 non-essential staff were evacuated to the provincial capital of Lubumbashi, 320 km to the southwest. Anvil said the move was a precautionary measure, as it had been assured by the leader of the armed rebel group (about 50-100 people) that his group had no intention of taking over the mine and “had no issues with Anvil, Anvil expatriate personnel, nor the Dikulushi mine.”
The company says the conflict never moved beyond Kilwa.
During the financial year ended June 30, 2004, Dikulushi produced 29.3 million lbs. (13,587 tonnes) copper and 1.14 million oz. silver in concentrate at a total cash cost of just US49 per lb., after silver credits and including all transportation and treatment charges.
An expansion earlier this month is expected to boost production by about 50% to 20,000 tonnes of copper and 1.6 million oz. of silver per year.
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