Crew Gold stops, starts Guinea gold mine

A TSX-listed mining company said it restarted production at its gold property in Guinea Monday after a new military government in the West African country ordered the company to resume operations.

Crew Gold Corp. said the new military regime of Capt. Moussa Camara told the company to resume production at its Lefa gold mine one day after telling the London-based company to halt operations.

"The review of mining concessions by the new regime would proceed while operations continue as usual," said Bill LeClair, Crew's interim chief executive officer.

Three-month stock chart for Crew Gold Corp.

The new military regime, which took power in a coup on Dec. 23, ordered Crew on Sunday morning to stop lifting at the Lefa mine, located 700 kilometres northeast of Guinea's capital city of Conakry, but reversed itself by the afternoon, saying the company should keep the mine in operation.

For its part, Crew said it wants to comply with whatever the new government decrees.

"We understand that this is a difficult time for the government," LeClair said.

Crew, which mines gold in Greenland and the Philippines, noted that its Guinean mine had a net book value of $354 million US, according to its latest financial statements.

At that valuation, the Lefa operation represented 83 per cent of the book value of its mining properties.