Gold group pays ?2.3m for mine

AFRICAN Gold, the Aim-listed* mining group, will this week announce the appointment of Hank Slack as chairman as it unveils the acquisition of a mine in Ghana for $4m ?2.35m).

The purchase is the first in a series of deals in the fragmented African gold mining sector.

Slack, the former soninlaw of legendary De Beers chairman Harry Oppenheimer, was chief executive of Minorco before its merger with Anglo-American and has held boardroom positions at Anglo and SAB Miller.

He replaces John Teeling, who will remain with the company.

Slack became a non executive-director of African Gold in December with John Anderson and Oliver Baring.

The trio are part of a consortium that pinpointed the mining group as an ideal acquisition vehicle and will eventually own 29%.

Slack and his team are targeting promising latestage gold prospects or mines that are already in production. Investors will be told early next week that African Gold is buying the Konongo prospect in Ghana.

It first indicated the acquisition was on the cards in January when it announced it had taken a 90-day option on three mining licences for an area along the Ashanti Gold Belt measuring 125 square kilometres.