News

November 12, 2008

Archipelago Resources Now Has Several Financiers Interested In Funding Toka Tindung, But It’s Not Done And Dusted Yet

By Charles Wyatt

It is difficult to praise too highly the fortitude and patience Colin Loosemore, managing director of Aim-traded Archipelago Resources, has shown in the face of the continuous delays and disappointments over the development of the Toka Tindung gold mine in Indonesia. Persistence is how Colin describes it when contacted in his Perth office by Minews. Difficulties abounded initially, both financially and technically, in getting the project through feasibility, but in October 2006, Colin was sufficiently confident to forecast that the mine would start-up in the third quarter of 2007. Back in 2006, which seems so long ago, three dams and associated drainage structures had already been constructed, reinforced concrete foundations were being laid for the primary crusher, for the crushed ore reclaim tunnel, and for the mills and processing plant. The final land purchases that had been needed to start the project had been completed and a seven kilometre road constructed from the processing plant site to the coast, where a jetty was going to be installed.

Components of the bulk processing plant were also due to arrive in Indonesia at the end of 2006, so all that remained were the operating permits, granting of which was considered to be little more than a formality. With hindsight it must be said that nothing involving politicians and bureaucrats should be considered a formality, despite the good relations Archipelago had forged in these areas. In May 2007 the authorities had still not approved the company’s environmental permits, despite the...