Tembo 600K oz gold beside Barrick: project economics and mine design notes
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Lake Victoria Gold’s Tembo project in Tanzania has reported an initial resource of almost 600,000 oz. gold adjacent to Barrick’s Bulyanhulu mine, including 2.69 million indicated tonnes at 1.16 g/t and 13.33 million inferred tonnes at 1.12 g/t across the Ngula 1, Nyakagwe Village and Nyakagwe East near-surface deposits. A 5,000-metre infill drilling campaign will target Ngula 1, already drilled to about 200 m depth and hosting over half of inferred ounces, while a toll-milling deal is being advanced with Nyati Resources’ 500 t/d plant on a Tembo licence. Combined with the shovel-ready Imwelo project, expected to average 3.7 g/t in its first two years, the company is positioning for small-scale multi-asset production in Tanzania.
Technical Brief
- A 1 g/t cut-off yields 1.07 Mt indicated at 2.0 g/t for 68,600 oz. Au.
- At the same 1 g/t cut-off, inferred resources total 4.79 Mt at 2.15 g/t for 331,700 oz. Au.
- Ngula 1 extends ~600 m along strike and has been drilled to ~200 m vertical depth.
- Ngula 1 contains ~56% of inferred ounces and ~63% of indicated ounces within Tembo.
- All three deposits lie within conceptual pit shells and remain open along strike and at depth.
- Tembo comprises four granted mining licences over 34 km² in the Sukumaland greenstone belt.
- Historic work includes >50,000 m of drilling and a 2020 integrated study defining 39 additional exploration targets.
- Toll treatment is being negotiated with Nyati Resources’ 500 t/d plant located on a Tembo licence beside Bulyanhulu.
- Imwelo, west of AngloGold Ashanti’s Geita mine, is shovel-ready but lacks a completed feasibility study.
Our Take
With Barrick Mining now emphasising acquisitions and lower‑risk jurisdictions after its 17% gold output drop in 2025, a 600,000‑oz‑scale gold resource at Tembo in Tanzania could become strategically interesting as Barrick reassesses its African portfolio around Bulyanhulu and Geita.
The Tembo project’s grades at a 1 g/t cut‑off and its 34 sq. km footprint in the Sukumaland greenstone belt suggest it is still in the ‘resource definition’ rather than ‘development optimisation’ bucket compared with the larger, capital‑intensive gold–copper builds like Barrick’s Reko Diq flagged elsewhere in our mining coverage.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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