African Barrick Gold Eyes Golden Ridge As Satellite To Buzwagi

Anglo-Tanzanian miner African Barrick Gold PLC (ABG.LN) plans to develop its Golden Ridge project in Tanzania as a satellite to its existing Buzwagi gold mine from 2013, the company's chief executive said Tuesday.

Greg Hawkins told Dow Jones Newswires that African Barrick Gold plans to mine and truck ore from Golden Ridge to Buzwagi in order to counteract and boost production at the Buzwagi mine as ore grades begin to decline from 2013 onwards.

African Barrick Gold expects to produce 50,000 troy ounces of gold annually from the Gold Ridge project, making it a key component of the company's growth strategy to increase production by 40% by 2014.

The miner, whose parent company is Canadian miner Barrick Gold Corp (ABX), previously said it is targeting 1 million troy ounces of gold production by 2014, up from around 700,000 ounces via brownfield and greenfield expansions. It also expects to pursue production growth through mergers and acquisitions.

"Last year we outlined four projects that represented strong organic growth. Golden Ridge was one of those projects," he said. The projects include an underground mine at North Mara, life extension at the Tulawaka mine and and rehabilitating access to the Upper East Zone of the Bulyanhulu mine. Each of these projects is expected to add about 50,000 ounces of additional gold output, Hawkins said.

Aside from organic growth plans, African Barrick Gold also plans to use its $400 million cash war chest to diversify its geographic reach beyond Africa, Hawkins said.

"We're going to be [in Tanzania] for a long time but we also see a strategic need to diversify," he said. The company has looked at a dozen potential transactions already, half of which resulted in a closer investigation, Hawkins said.

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9328; alex.macdonald@dowjones.com

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