Randgold is developing the Kibali project and will operate the mine. The completed operation will comprise an integrated underground and open-pit mine, a twin-cir-cuit sulphide and oxide plant with a throughput of 6 million mt/y, and four self-constructed hydropower stations, as well as a standby high-speed thermal power gener-ator for back-up during the dry season.

The Kibali project is being constructed in two overlapping phases. Phase 1, through startup, covers the metallurgical plant, the first phase of the tailings storage facility, the first of the hydropower stations, the back-up power plant, all shared infrastructure, and the completion of a resettlement program. The cost of Phase 1 is estimated at $920 million, before provisions, contingencies, and escalation. Phase 2 will include devel-opment of the underground mine, which is expected to deliver first ore in 2014 and to reach steady state production by 2015, at an estimated cost of $650 million before provisions, contingencies, and escalation.

“By the end of March, we had already shifted 200,000 m 3 of ground for the foun-dations of the metallurgy plant, and during the second quarter we plan to move 800,000 m 3 for the bulk earthworks,” said Project Manager Gary Short. “Construction of the assay laboratory is scheduled for completion by early May, and the three lay-down terraces should be complete by June.

“The open-pit mining contractor started site establishment in February, and its fleet is due to begin arriving from the end of April. The earthworks and civils contractor is also on site, and work on the main earth-works should commence in earnest on schedule at the end of April. During the current quarter, concrete works are planned to start at the metallurgy plant and at the first hydropower plant, earthworks for the decline box cut are due to get underway, and the structural, mechanical, and platework contractor is scheduled to mobilize on site.”

Randgold’s group general manager oper-ations Central and East Africa Willem Jacobs points out that the project’s staff complement has increased almost tenfold from the end of 2009 and now stands at 2,829. In line with Randgold’s policy of favoring nationals of the countries in which it operates, only 86 of these are expatri-ates, and they are there largely to transfer skills and build local capacity. Eventually, Kibali’s management team will be almost entirely Congolese.