Olympus Pacific Minerals has received the highest local award for its contribution to the social and economic development of Vietnam’s Quang Nam Province for its Phuoc Son Gold plant. The certificate of merit was announced by the provincial People’s Committee as recognition of the company’s investment in the central Vietnam region.
Chairman of the Quang Nam People's Committee, Le Phuoc Thanh, presented the award to the general director of the Phuoc Son facility, Le Minh Kha, in December.
Olympus completed construction of the new state-of-the-art plant in the first quarter of 2011 and commissioned it in June, to become its second gold production facility in Vietnam since 2005.
The gold exploration and production company employs almost 1200 workers of which 90% are Vietnamese. It has completed major road improvements, constructed clean water supplies to houses, conducted agricultural sustainability programs and given donations to various sport programs.
Olympus Pacific’s chief executive officer John Seton says Phuoc Son is in an area of extensive artisan gold mining. Gold in the region occurs in quartz veins that are hosted within continuous stacked shear zones. NI 43-101 resources to date have been partially delineated within a 5km strike section of one of the main shear zones in the southern end of the exploration area. The current underground mine development is focused on two high-grade ore shoots within this southern structure. Exploration of adjacent target areas is at an early stage.
Phuoc Son is within the same plate-tectonic and metallogenic setting as the Sepon copper-gold mine in Laos.