High costs hinder mining Sh170 billion gold in Western

High costs hinder UK exploration firm from mining gold in Western

A UK firm undertaking exploration in western Kenya hopes to make more gold discoveries before it can start mining.

Acacia Exploration Kenya, which in February announced that it had found high-grade gold ore worth Sh170 billion, indicated that mining would take some time to begin.

Acacia’s community liaison officer, Edward Anyanda, said mining was currently not cost-effective. He said calculations had shown that the cost of putting up structures is the same as the value of the gold ore.

“Let us say two years before actual mining starts,” said Mr Anyanda. He added that the expected threshold for exploration is discovering more gold deposits of approximately the same value.

“We are still going on with exploration and so far the results are promising,” said the official.

Anyanda spoke on the sidelines of the Strathmore University Mining 4i forum held yesterday at the institution.

The event, in its third edition, is meant to give students a platform to present their ideas on mining and exploration before a panel of investors and advisers in a bid to win funding, support, or business opportunities.

Kenya Chamber of Mines Chief Executive Moses Njeru said investors, especially the youth, are wary of venturing into the business due to unrealistic expectations.

“It is high-risk and capital-intensive. One has to be patient because it can take up to 15 years of exploration to find any deposits and 10 more for the mineral to reach the market,” he said.