KEFI Gold and Copper announced on Monday, 12 October, the gradual resumption of development at the Tulu Kapi gold mine in western Ethiopia, after a five-week suspension. The London-listed group had halted work on 7 September following a fatal incident three days earlier in the project area.
Initial work concerns the power connection and the remobilisation of teams responsible for the new access roads. KEFI then plans to replace the homes and land of residents due to leave the area covered by the mining licence, before installing security infrastructure, launching earthworks for the processing plant and building permanent staff accommodation.
The company says it resumed the programme after consultations with local representatives, federal authorities and those of the Oromia region. It says it favours phased execution and a greater role for local businesses, but did not publish a revised timetable on Monday for completing the project or for first production.
Financing remains key to what follows. In its half-year results published at the end of September, KEFI said it had assembled a package comprising $240 million of guaranteed debt provided by Africa Finance Corporation and the Trade and Development Bank, $60 million of equipment financing from BCM and more than $100 million of equity exposed to project risk.
Lenders continued to support the project during the suspension, according to Monday's statement. Discussions are nonetheless ongoing over the new sequence of works and the drawdown schedule, meaning the stated support does not yet amount to disbursement of all the announced sums.
KEFI signed a mining services contract with BCM in June worth more than $400 million over the first nine planned years of operation. The company values the sums already invested in Tulu Kapi at more than $150 million, a figure that no independent source has updated for now.
The restart should set in motion road, electricity, earthworks and housing markets around the site. KEFI estimates that a producing mine would directly employ around 1,000 people from local communities and support new suppliers, but these effects remain contingent on the financing being executed and the new timetable being met.
The incident of 4 September caused the first death among project personnel in the twelve years of KEFI's control, according to the company. The statement does not detail the findings of examinations carried out since or the new safety measures, and says further details will be released as actions are finalised.