Banro halts gold mine in Congo as access road blocked

Shares in Canadian gold miner Banro Corporation (TSX, NYSE:BAA) were down Monday after the company said it had temporarily suspended operations at its Namoya gold mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as access road were blocked.

The Toronto-based miner said the measure was taken after violent groups blocked the access road to the mine preventing essentials from reaching the operation. Banro added it has taken steps to ensure the safety of its personnel and the integrity of the Namoya mine.

Operations at the company's Twangiza mine in South Kivu province have not been impacted, Banro said.

The incident is the latest in a string of direct and indirect violent acts against Banro's operations in eastern Congo.

In February an armed attack on the Twanziga gold mine, another Banro property, left four dead, including three policemen.

Only a month later, five workers including a French national, three Congolese men and a Tanzanian worker were kidnapped from Banro’s Namoya mine. And while the Tanzanian hostage was released shortly after, the other four remained captive until late May.

Banro operates in a particularly violent area of the Congo, were militia groups are still active despite a peace deal with internal rebel groups signed in 2002 and the official end in 2003 to a regional war that killed five million people.

Those groups have repeatedly complain against Banro for what they consider displacement and a lack of jobs for area workers, particularly those miners that who had been working on the are before the company started operating there.

More to come…

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