Renaissance Minerals has raised $10 million for its gold-mining program at the Okvau deposit, in Mondulkiri province.

The Australian company had estimated the area contained 729,000 ounces of gold.

“Drilling results in the past few months, however, indicate  the gold resources are even bigger,” managing director Justin Tremain said yesterday.

Renaissance’s biggest challenge would be to finance the project by equity investments world-wide, Tremain said.

“But Cambodia is stable, and the project is robust enough to succeed,” he said.

Renaissance expects to employ more than 1,000 local people during the mine’s construction phase and 500 in the longer term.

“We currently employ 50 Cambodians for exploration of the deposits,” Tremain said.

The company would upgrade access to the project area, such as the road from Kratie, he said.

Renaissance is spending $1 million a month on “aggressive exploration” in Okvau and wants to establish a multi-million-ounce district.

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Thust at [email protected]