North Mara Gold Mine
| Location | |
|---|---|
| Location | Tarime |
| Region | Mara |
| Country | Tanzania |
| Coordinates | 01°28′S 034°31′E / 1.467°S 34.517°ECoordinates: 01°28′S 034°31′E / 1.467°S 34.517°E |
| History | |
| Opened | 2002 |
| Closed | 2024 (expected) |
| Owner | |
| Company | Acacia Mining plc |
| Website | Acacia website |
| Year of acquisition | 2006 |
North Mara Gold Mine is a combined open pit and underground gold mine in the Tarime District of the Mara Region of Tanzania. It is one of three gold mines Acacia Mining plc, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange, operates in Tanzania, the other two being Bulyanhulu and the Buzwagi Gold Mine.
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 North Mara mine, which opened in 2002, consists of one active open pit (Nyabirama) and one active underground mine (Gokona), a process plant, waste rock dumps, a tailings containment pond, and other associated facilities. As of 2014 there was an expected mine life of 9 years remaining.
The mine was owned by Afrika Mashariki Gold Mines, which became Placer Dome Tanzania, a subsidiary of Placer Dome. Barrick Gold took over Placer Dome in January 2006.
In 2008 a group of 200 people broke into the North Mara mine site and destroyed approximately US$15 million worth of Barrick property, including setting some of it on fire. The vandalism resulted in temporarily closing an open pit, and an increase in security on the property. Motivation for the attack on the property was not determined, the local police suggested they were attempting to get gold from the pit.
...
Wikipedia