Acacia Mining plc (formerly African Barrick Gold plc) is Tanzania's largest gold producer and one of the five largest gold producers in Africa. It has four mines, all located in Northwest Tanzania, and several exploration projects at various stages of development in Tanzania and Kenya. It has a high-quality asset base, solid growth opportunities and a clear strategy of: * driving operating efficiencies to optimise production from our existing asset base; * growing through near mine expansion and development of advanced-stage projects; and * organic greenfield growth and acquisitions in Africa.

Links...
Company Web Sitehttp://www.acaciamining.com/

Company Calendar http://www.acaciamining.com/investors/financial-calendar.aspx

Former Thread as African Barrick Gold http://www.moneyam.com/InvestorsRoom/posts.php?tid=14880#lastread thanks to Harry for giving go ahead to swap to new name.

Acacia chops back at Bulyanhulu as Tanzanian impasse continues
By Brendan Ryan - September 4, 2017

Acacia Mining is to shut down underground operations at its Bulyanhulu gold mine in Tanzania which will drop group annual gold production by 100,000oz and cause “a significant reduction in the workforce from the current 1,200 employees and 800 contractor roles.”

The company is also cutting back on capital expenditure and assessing possible reductions in its exploration projects including expansionary drilling at North Mara and its greenfields exploration programme.

The steps were announced today by CEO Brad Gordon as a result of the impasse between the group and the government of Tanzania over the gold/copper export ban which was imposed on March 3 this year affecting some 35% of production from Acacia’s three operating mines in the country.

According to the statement from Acacia, “discussions between Barrick (Acacia’s controlling shareholder) and the Government of Tanzania are on-going. Acacia continues to support the discussions and still believes that a negotiated resolution is the best outcome for all stakeholders.”

Acacia said the ban had so far led to a build-up of about in $265m in concentrate inventory in Tanzania while the associated revenue loss – plus an outflow of $65m of “indirect taxes and costs from other changes to the operating environment” – had resulted in a cash outflow of about $210m so far during 2017.

The company added the concentrate export ban combined with the deterioration of the operating environment had “led to a negative cash flow of approximately $15m per month at the mine and thus has made ordinary course operations at Bulyanhulu unsustainable.”

Acacia said underground activity “will cease” and the processing of underground ore will end within four weeks. Retreatment of tailings – which is currently suspended because of drought conditions in northern Tanzania – should recommence in October assuming adequate rainfall is received.

The company said the costs of moving to this “reduced operational state” would include one-off expenses of $20m – $25m plus about $35m – $40m from “the natural unwinding of around two months’ worth of working capital.”

Bulyanhulu will also incur an average of $5m per month of operating cash outflows over the next three months before reaching a steady state of around $3m per month.

Acacia said that the Buzwagi mine – which is also affected by the concentrate ban – will continue to operate as normal “due to its remaining short life and lower impact of the changes in the operating environment on the company’s cash outflows.”

Acacia added it expected annual production to be “in the order of 100,000oz lower than the bottom of the previous guidance range of 850,000oz – 900,000oz. Previous AISC (all-in sustaining cost) guidance of between $880 -920 per ounce sold remains unchanged due to the impact of on-going cost saving initiatives and a further reduction in capital expenditure guidance to approximately $160m “

Acacia expected that “the group will be able to return to a positive cash generation in early 2018” but added that it is “evaluating further steps to reduce cash outflows and protect its balance sheet with the cash balance at the end of August 2017 amounting to $107m with $71m of debt.”

Anyone subscribing to the MoneyAM Level 2 platform please take note that most days it is not reporting the correct Trade High nor Trade Low information and "some days" not reporting the correct Opening Price or Closing Price.

The reason is because MoneyAM's Level 2 system is not sensing the Auto Trades or Ordinary Trades correctly so is wrongly reporting them

MoneyAM has been unable to fix the fault for over 8 weeks now but are still charging full price for their Level 2

Tanzania's President takes leaf out of Trump's playbook with wall plans

Upping the ante in the country's battle with international mining companies, Tanzania's President John Magufuli has ordered a wall to be built around its tanzanite mines to "control illegal mining and trading activities".
Magufuli, nicknamed 'the Bulldozer' for his no-nonsense style, said the army will construct a wall around the 15 square-kilometre mine site to curb smuggling of the rare gemstone, the local Citizen newspaper reported.
The President, who visited the area after a parliamentary probe into tanzanite mining industry, said the findings "shows how much the resource benefit a few".
The wall will come complete with cameras and checkpoints, with statement from the presidency saying that “all tanzanite gemstones will be controlled and will pass through one gate".
Tanzania’s central bank has been ordered by Magufuli to take part in the tanzanite buying trade, Reuters reported.
"President John 'The Bulldozer' Magufuli is apparently taking a leaf out of President Trump’s playbook, reportedly ordering the military to build walls around the country’s tanzanite mines," said analyst Yuen Low at Shore Capital.
Earlier this month, the Tanzanian government seized a 71.7k carat parcel from Petra Diamonds’ Williamson mine, which been registered as containing 14kg worth 33bn shillings but which the government apparently alleged contained nearly 30kg worth 65bn shillings.
Petra pointed out that the government has “complete oversight” of diamonds produced at the mine, which are “physically controlled by a number of different government representatives in conjunction with Petra” from point of recovery to point of sale.
ShoreCap's Low noted that the parcel had yet to be released and Petra still to be officially apprised of the grounds for the Tanzanian government’s action.
"We noted that if the developments at Acacia can be taken as a precedent, Petra could be waiting a very long time – as far as we are aware, Acacia is still waiting for reports that, in our view, should have in the interests of transparency been made available to it (and the public at large) in May 2017.
"We suspect that release of the Acacia and Petra reports would likely lead to a significant loss of face for President Magufuli, and we do not believe he is the sort of person to tolerate such a thing, so we would not be surprised if they never saw the light of day."

Tanzanian paper shut down for two years for ‘insulting’ President John Magufuli

Nairobi — An independent Tanzanian newspaper has been suspended for two years, a government spokesperson said on Tuesday, accusing the publication of sedition and endangering national security.

The critical Mwanahalisi newspaper was shut after publishing a letter on Monday from a reader containing "insults" against President John Magufuli and his government, said spokesperson Hassan Abbasi.

Abbasi said the paper had received several warnings. The daily has been shuttered on several occasions in the past — for three months in 2008 and then three years between 2012 and 2015.

The offending letter said that Magufuli "claims to be a patriot but questions the patriotism of anyone who opposes him. This is hypocritical".

Mocking Magufuli’s regular calls for people to pray for him, the article asks if one should not rather pray for opposition legislator Tundu Lissu, who was shot and injured earlier in September. His party, Chadema, has accused the government of being involved in the attack.

Abbasi said the letter was the latest in a long line of violations of "ethics [and] principles of the journalistic profession by the publication of false, seditious articles that endanger national security".

"Government is suspending printing and publication of the Mwanahalisi newspaper for 24 months," Abbasi said.

The ban comes just three months after the weekly Mawio was suspended for two years for linking two former presidents to dubious mining contracts.

Since his October election Magufuli has shut down newspapers, banned opposition rallies, switched off live broadcasts of parliamentary sessions and used a draconian "cyber crimes" law to jail critics.

His government is also increasingly targeting the gay community.

"This suspension is absolutely excessive and is yet another example of the repression that is being experienced by Tanzanian media," said Clea Kahn-Sriber of Reporters Without Borders.