Geita, Tanzania

Geita, one of AngloGold Ashanti’s flagship mines, is located in north-western Tanzania, in the Lake Victoria goldfields of the Mwanza region, about 120km from Mwanza and 4km west of the town of Geita.

Ownership

100%
AngloGold Ashanti

Mineral Resource

9.9Moz
of gold

Gold production

521koz

All-in sustaining costs

$1,227/oz

Capital expenditure

$153m

Workforce

6,435
including contractors

Overview and locality

Geita Gold Mine (GGM) is wholly owned by AngloGold Ashanti and sources ore from Nyankanga open pit and from two underground mines (Star and Comet as well as Nyankanga) in 2020.

Geita has an established 5.1Mtpa CIL processing plant capable of processing hard ore. It also has an established tailings storage facility. A full workshop facility is in place to support the maintenance of heavy mining equipment and all light support equipment. Additional support infrastructure includes a mine village, medical clinic, mine store, administration buildings and airstrip.

The underground mining method used at Geita is a combination of Longitudinal Open Stoping (LOS) and Transverse Open Stoping (TOS).

A brief history

In 1936, the first Geita deposits were discovered and by 1966, three mines had produced almost 1Moz of gold.
Ashanti acquired the project through acquisition of Cluff Resources in 1996 and in early December 2000, Ashanti reached an agreement to sell AngloGold a 50% interest in Geita for $324 million. AngloGold added its neighbouring Nyamulilima Hill deposits into the JV company.
In 2004, the merger of AngloGold and Ashanti resulted in the operation being wholly run by AngloGold Ashanti.
In 2015, a decision was taken to go underground at Star and Comet and the underground development started in 2016.
In 2017 the Nyankanga underground operation commenced and in 2020 the Geita Hill underground commenced and is scheduled to ramp up to full production by the end of 2022.
The Nyankanga open pit, the only remaining operating pit at the time, was mined to completion in September 2020. In April 2021, the Nyamulilima open pit commenced operations.