Nevsun Resources Ltd. (TSX:NSU) announced Thursday that it has almost completed Eritrea’s first modern day mine.
The Vancouver-based company said its Bisha project is 70% built and on track for commissioning in the fourth quarter of 2010.
The bountiful deposit, located in the far-flung Horn of Africa, is expected to produce more than one million ounces of gold, 9.4 million ounces of silver, 734 million pounds of copper and one billion pounds of zinc over its lifetime.
Freshly back from a trip to Eritrea, Nevsun president and CEO Cliff Davis told BIV Thursday morning that construction is running smoothly.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” said Davis. “We’ve got a good team. We’ve got a good contractor. We’ve got great support from the government and we’ve been very fortunate to be building at [this time].”
BIV last caught up with Nevsun in January shortly after the United Nations Security Council hit the Eritrean government with sanctions intended to stop its alleged support for an Islamist insurgency group in Somalia. (See “UN sanctions worry Vancouver gold miners” – issue 1056, January 19-25, 2010)
The Eritrean government has a 40% stake in the Bisha mine, but Davis said the sanctions have not affected the $260 million project.
Over the last several months the company completed a $117 million financing and released a steady stream of updates regarding its progress.
At press time Nevsun’s shares were up 1.5% to $4.07.
The company’s shares have traded between $3.97 and $4.15 over the last week; 52-week high: $4.32; 52-week low: $1.61.