Below follows a news release from Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC) however we are a little uneasy with it as the schedule of 36 months for the construction of the Tasiast mine appears to be on the ambitious side of things.

The release says: the Company expects to fast-track engineering and project development work on the Tasiast expansion, including tendering for an EPCM contractor.

EPCM stands for Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Maintenance. So as it stands there isn’t a contractor in place to do this work, the process of compiling the tender package on which the contractors will base their bids will take time. However, even if Kinross are well on the way in terms of compiling this package for the the contractors, time will be needed to prepare a detailed competitive bid. The bidders will have a myriad of questions in order to get clarification of various aspects of this project. The more sketchy the data and the more pressure that is applied in the bid phase, the bigger the price will be as the contractor has to ensure that he has covered everything and mitigated all the risks (read more…)