Tanzanian Gold begins production at Buckreef

Tanzanian Gold (TSX: TNX; NYSE: TRX) has produced commercial-grade gold for the first time from the oxide processing plant at its Buckreef gold project, south of Lake Victoria and 110 km southwest of the city of Mwanza in north-central Tanzania. “The ore comes in two forms — the primary ore that is at depth and then becomes oxidized as you get close to the surface,” Ulrich Rath, the company’s director said in a telephone interview. “The oxidized ore has different characteristics to the underlying sulphides.” Some companies, he added, elect to build plants that process both of them at the same time; however, they decided to treat the oxide ores first, as they are close to the surface and then to build a second plant to process the sulphide ores. The company, he noted, now plans to expand the oxide plant in the fourth quarter of this year, with a further expansion slated for early next year.