Kelian ships gold processing plant to Guinea

UK-based gold miner Guinor Gold Corporation announced on Thursday the first of approximately 12 barges containing the dismantled Kelian processing and gold plant has left the river port of Jelemuq, East Kalimantan.

The shipment is the first leg of the global re-location of the plant that forms the core element of Guinor's LEFA Corridor expansion in Guinea, West Africa.

Over the next three days, said Guinor, the barge will be towed down river to the port of Samarinda where the river tug will be exchanged for a larger ocean going tug required

for the ocean bound leg to Pelepas, Malaysia. At Pelepas the barge will be offloaded and the cargo laid down prior to consolidation onto an ocean going vessel. Each vessel will take up to 4 barge loads to fill before leaving

Malaysia to Guinea. The first vessel is forecast to arrive in Conakry, Guinea in Q4 2005.

Guinor secured the fisrt shipment after facing months of delay in obtaining the Indonesian approvals to ship the plant.

Guinor bought the plant from former owner PT. Kelian Equatorial Mining, a subsidiary of Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto,which had ceased mining operations at its Kelian miner due to resource depletion early this year.

The overall cost to purchase the facility, which consists of a metallurgical plant, power plant, substantial accessories and spares (including dismantling, packaging and loading onto barges) is US$15 million.

The plant would be utilized to expand production at Guinor's 85 percent owned Guinea gold mine. (alex)