{"id":1164317,"date":"2020-02-07T05:58:16","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T11:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1013236"},"modified":"2020-02-07T05:58:16","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T11:58:16","slug":"banro-dangling-congo-gold-mine-to-best-bidder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1164317","title":{"rendered":"Banro dangling Congo gold mine to best bidder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canada\u2019s Banro Corporation will put its Namoya gold mine in eastern Congo up for sale, at significant discount, after repeated attacks from armed rebels forced it to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/canadas-banro-halts-congo-mines-declares-force-majeure-on-ongoing-violence\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">halt operations once again in September<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Toronto-based miner, present in<br \/>\neastern DRC since the 1990s, said the decision to offload Namoya was based on the<br \/>\nlack of government support to keep its staff and assets safe.<\/p>\n<p>Banro had\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/banro-halts-gold-mine-congo-due-violence-shares-collapse\/\" >a challenging run that nearly ended in bankruptcy<\/a>\u00a0three years ago. The government had confiscated its licenses during a civil war that killed five million people, returning them in 2002 as the conflict drew to a close.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>Banro sold last month its other mine in Congo \u2014 Twangiza \u2014 for just $1 because the asset\u2019s liabilities exceeded projected revenue.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In the following years, the company built its Twangiza and Namoya mines. The latter has been since then the target of multiple attacks, including the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/banro-resumes-operations-namoya-militia-violence-prompted-halt\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">kidnapping of employees<\/a>, which led&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/banro-halts-gold-mine-congo-access-road-blocked\/\" >the cash-strapped company to halt operations<\/a>&nbsp;in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>A Canadian court approved a rescue<br \/>\nplan in early 2018, enabling the company\u2019s main creditors \u2014 Chinese<br \/>\nstate-controlled Baiyin International Investments and Connecticut-based<br \/>\nGramercy Funds Management \u2014 to become its senior shareholders.<\/p>\n<p>The move allowed Banro to resume<br \/>\noperations. Fresh attacks, however, including the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/web\/gunmen-kidnap-two-workers-at-banros-east-congo-mine\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">kidnapping of four employees in July<\/a>, disrupted mining<br \/>\nactivities once again.<\/p>\n<p>The company ended up signing an agreement with the leader of the Mai Mai militia, allowing artisanal local miners to temporarily extract gold from Namoya\u2019s site in exchange for the release of the abducted workers, which were held for several weeks before being released, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/afrique.lalibre.be\/41439\/rdc-banro-suspend-ses-operations-sur-3-sites-miniers-suite-a-linsecurite\/\" ><em>La Libre Afrique<\/em>&nbsp;reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Banro is now seeking to exit the country. Last month, it sold its Twangiza mine to minority shareholder Baiyin International Investments of China for just $1, as the asset&#8217;s liabilities exceeded projected revenue, chairman Brett Richards told <em>Reuters<\/em> on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>The executive is hoping he can do the same with Namoya. &#8220;I\u2019m actively trying to sell the business for very, very low value to see if somebody else can come in and accept the unstable environment that has been created by the government,&#8221; Richards said.<\/p>\n<p><em>(With Reuters)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Canadian miner is open to sell Namoya, its only remaining operation, at significant discount.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2648,369,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164317"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1164317"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1164405,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1164317\/revisions\/1164405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1164317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1164317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1164317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}