Kibali Gold produced a total of 812.152 ounces at the upper end of 2021 targets
A total of 812,152 ounces have been produced by the Kibali gold mine, within the upper range of 2021 targets, and appears set to increase its mineral reserves after depletion for the third consecutive year, maintaining its mine life of over 10 years as one of Barrick’s Tier 1 assets .
During his 44th press briefing held on Friday January 21 in Kinshasa, Mark Bristow, Chairman and CEO of Barrick, noted that this performance, which has continued to strengthen throughout the year, was achieved without that there are no lost time accidents during the last quarter. Like all Barrick mines worldwide, Kibali has retained its ISO 45001 occupational safety and ISO 14001 environmental accreditations.
Meanwhile, Kibali has continued to lead the group’s campaign for clean energy, using power from its three hydropower plants that are constantly being upgraded and backed by new battery backup technology.
“Kibali’s performance has been supported by strengthened Covid-19 protocols to deal with the fourth wave of the virus The company has worked closely with DRC health authorities and the provincial government to source vaccines and , to date, it has partially vaccinated 60% of its workers, including 43% fully,” Bristow said.
In addition, CEO Cyril Mutombo described the great ambitions of this company during this current year.
“2021 was a good year. We produced according to forecasts which were respected and exceeded. We should produce at least 750,000 ounces but we produced beyond that. We have also invested heavily in staff training. Today “Today, our engineers are able to be exported from the DRC to other regions here in Africa and outside the continent. We intend to maintain the production cap around 750 thousand ounces and improve the capacity building of our workers. We also intend to diversify our technology and invest in communities as well,” he said.
Regarding subcontracting, CEO Cyril Mutombo said that Kibali Gold’s expenditure in this sector is estimated at 2.1 billion over 12 years and more than 3.7 billion USD have been used to pay taxes. , etc
“We have made projections of the progress of subcontracting. We currently have 380 local subcontractors working for us. The figures for the last quarter were approximately 40.6 million USD dollars spent for the payment of this subcontracting. And loan of 200 million USD for the year 2021, when we spread over the past 12 years, we are at 2.1 billion USD. And we have capacity for our subcontractors. To date, Kibali has invested approximately $3.7 billion in the DRC in the form of taxes, permits, infrastructure, salaries and payments to local partners,” he added.
During the fourth quarter, Kibali paid dividends of $170 million to its shareholders: Barrick, AngloGold Ashanti and state-owned company, SOKIMO, bringing the total payout for the year to $200 million. Bristow said Barrick was working with Congolese authorities on a program to free up excess cash for external debt repayment purposes.
During the quarter, Kibali launched the Garamba Alliance, a biodiversity partnership with USAID designed to preserve this World Heritage Park through future-proofing and other conservation initiatives. This partnership is also designed to ensure a sustainable economic future for the local community surrounding the park.
Note that looking ahead, Bristow said underground drilling of the KCD deposit defined a new high-grade vein above the base of the shaft infrastructure. This is an exciting discovery that could add an entirely new deposit to the existing series of KCD deposits.
