First mine licensed to draw gold
In a milestone for Cambodia’s nascent mining industry, the government has issued the first commercial mining licence to Mesco Gold, giving the Indian mining firm a green light to extract and process ore at its gold project in Ratanakkiri province, industry sources said on September 13. The landmark approval by the Ministry of Mines and Energy marks the first time for an extraction licence to be issued under a new regulatory framework, and the final step for Mesco Gold to bring its Phum Syarung mine into production. “This is the first mining licence to be issued in the country, so it’s a pretty big deal,” said Richard Stanger, president of the Cambodian Association for Mining and Exploration Companies. “It’s the first licence issued under the new [mining] legislation and covers mining and processing the ore.”
