KUCHING: State director of Minerals and Geoscience Department Alex Unya confirmed that Bau is showing potential as an important goldmining town as the initial outcome of the feasibility study conducted there is encouraging.
However, he cautioned that a definite conclusion can only be made when the feasibility study is completed in 2013.
He said it has been a fact that gold could be found in quite a lot of areas in the district, which accounted for it being called ‘Bau Goldfield’.
Yet for it to be mined commercially, mining companies need to be certain that the gold deposit must be rich enough.
“There is always gold there in Bau and it depends on what kind of gold it is, whether it is refractory, meaning gold that can be easily recovered or extracted, or non-refractory, whether it has to go through a more complex process to extract,†Unya told The Borneo Post here yesterday.
He said commercial gold mining had stopped in Bau decades ago because it was found that the venture was uneconomical due to the low prices of the precious metal and the lack of technology then.
“But now with the improvement in technology and high gold price globally, what was uneconomically before might become very profitable today,†stressed Unya.
He confirmed that Olympus Pacific Minerals Inc had been doing exploratory studies earlier than 2010 but declined to comment on the status of the application of the company to mine commercially in Bau. The Toronto-based company recently released a statement that prospects were bright for Bau to emerge as an important gold producer in South East Asia.
Its statement claimed that Jugan Hill in Bau has been shaping up to be larger than was first foreseen. It is one of the multiple gold prospects and the first to undergo comprehensive metallurgy testing.
Meanwhile, director of Land and Survey Sajeli Kipli declined to comment, saying that his department would meet next week before they could issue a statement on the matter.
Source:
News - http://www.theborneopost.com/2012/09/14/bau-has-a-golden-future-geoscience-dept/