MiningJV to pour more funds into gold plant

Australian-Thai joint venture Akara Mining plans in the last quarter of this year to increase its investment in a gold-processing plant in Phetchabun province to be worth between

Bt3 billion and Bt4 billion, the company's president, Gavin Thomas, said.

Akara Mining is a joint venture between Empire Asia, which holds a 52-per-cent stake, and Australian mining firm Kingsgate, which holds 48 per cent.

Thomas, who is also Kingsgate's managing director and CEO,

said the firm's board would con-sider the investment-expansion plan this week. It would boost production capacity from 2.4 million tonnes per year to 5 million tonnes.

 If the plan is approved, the company will apply for tax incentives and privileges from the Board of Investment (BoI) this month.

Between Bt2 billion and Bt3 billion of the investment will come from cash generated by the firm's existing gold mining in Phetchabun province. The rest will be borrowed from an Australian bank, Thomas said.

The new gold-processing plant will be located on three rai of

land near an existing processing plant in Phetchabun province, he said.

"Despite Thailand 's political uncertainty and the global recession, we have continued to expand investment in Thailand because of the gold-mining business' strong potential. We also believe that Thailand's political situation will not affect our investment. As a result, we have continued to expand our investment in Thailand," he said.

 Akara Mining starts investing in gold mining in Thailand in 2001. The company has gold-mining concessions on a total of 6,000 rai in Pichit, Phitsanulok and Phetchabun provinces.