Location Nzega District Country Tanzania Financial year 2009-10 Company Resolute Mining | Region Tabora Production 148,675 Website Resolute website Opened 1999 | |
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The Golden Pride Gold Mine is an open pit gold mine located in Nzega District of the Tabora Region of Tanzania. It is operated by Australian mining company Resolute Mining Limited.
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Golden Pride was the first modern commercial gold mining project developed in Tanzania since the country's formation in 1964. From its opening to 2010, the mine has produced 1.68 million ounces of gold.
The mine also lents its name to the Golden Pride Children's Choir, which hails from local villages around the mine and has toured internationally.
The mine was closed in late 2013. In its 15 years of operation, the mine produced more than 2.2 million ounces of gold.
History
Gold mining in Tanzania in modern times dates back to the German colonial period, beginning with gold discoveries near Lake Victoria in 1894. The first gold mine in what was then Tanganyika, the Sekenke Mine, began operation in 1909, and gold mining in Tanzania experienced a boom between 1930 and World War II. By 1967, gold production in the country had dropped to insignificance but was revived in the mid-1970s, when the gold price rose once more. In the late 1990s, foreign mining companies started investing in the exploration and development of gold deposits in Tanzania, leading to the opening of a number of new mines.
The history of the Golden Pride project goes back to 1989 when Samax Resources was granted a prospecting license. In 1994, Samax entered a joint venture with BHP to develop the mine, but, in 1996, BHP decided not to progress with the project. Resolute then took over from BHP and subsequently acquired Samax's interests, too. In September 1997, Resolute completed a feasibility study for the project.
Construction of the mine was completed in November 1998, for a cost of US$48 million. The mine was opened on 7 February 1999 by the President of Tanzania, Benjamin Mkapa, with an initial mine life of seven years but this was later extended.
The mine was upgraded in 2002 from a through put of 1.6 million tonnes to 2.6 million, at a cost of US$10.6 million.
The mine was the scene of a robbery in April 2009, when 3,500 ounces of gold were stolen by armed robbers.
Production
Production figures of the recent past were: