The coup in Guinea has had an impact on miners in the country – if not for very long.
Crew Gold (CRU-T) said that it was ordered to stop operations at its LEFA gold project for one day, Sunday December 28th, but was told by the coup leaders that it could resume mining the following day.
The cease mining order came after the ruling group announced it would review all mining contracts. It now says it will review the contracts while companies continue to mine.
The LEFA project sits roughly 700-km northeast of the capital of Conakry. As of the end of the third quarter of 2008 the open pit mine had produced roughly 144.5 oz. of gold.
The project has 75 million tonnes of proven and probable reserves grading 1.6 grams gold per tonne for 3.87 million oz. It has another 3.09 million tonnes of measured resources grading 2.2 grams gold for 220,000 oz. of gold.
As for the coup, the group has already begun to suffer from diplomatic backlash as the African Union announced it was suspending Guinea’s membership because of the military actions taken.
In a statement the African Union said the suspension would remain in place until constitutional order was restored.
The coup took hold of power after the death of Guinea’s longtime dictator, Lansana Conte, on Dec. 22.
Made up of a faction of the military, the coup wasted no time in announcing that the government, constitution, courts and parliament had been dissolved due to endemic corruption.
Since then, the group has established an interim government made up of 26 military members and six civilians.
Moussa Camara is the leader of the coup, and he has said that he will hold power until elections are held in December 2010 – he added he would not be running for president in those elections.
Transparency International ranked Guinea as Africa’s most corrupt country in 2006. In 2007 it ranked higher than only Sudan and Chad in the continent.
Crew shares were off 2.5¢ to 8¢ on 190,000 shares traded on Dec. 29th in Toronto. Its shares began the year trading in the $1.80 range.
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