About Us

The Sekisovskoye open pit mine had been worked by the Soviets from 1976. Exploration and metallurgical studies were carried out from 1979 to 1994 on the open pit and underground ore bodies. Hambledon Mining acquired the mining rights held by TOO Sekisovskoye in 1994. The mining licence is valid until 18 July 2020 with a contractual right to extend. In 2004, Hambledon listed on AIM. It subsequently built a brand new treatment plant capable of treating 850,000 tonnes per annum, commenced mining in 2007 and began processing ore and pouring gold in 2008.

Since then, production has been of the order of 20,000 oz gold per annum, with significant amounts of silver. The dore bars are exported to Switzerland for refining. In 2010, Tim Daffern succeeded Nick Bridgen as CEO and began a refurbishment programme. This was partly financed by  cash flow backed up by equity. In late 2011, Hambledon began mining the underground deposit of Sekisovskoye, and , in 2012, a loan and equity investment from European Bank for Reconstruction and Deveolpment was announced to assist in the financing of the underground development. Prior to the end of 2012, underground development was temporarily halted whilst further underground mining plans were explored. In late 2012, African Resources Ltd. made a successful partial tender offer for the Company, and now owns 60% of the outstanding issued equity. A re-configured board was instituted led by Mr Aidar Assaubayev as CEO, with Bill Trew and Ashar Qureshi as non-executive directors.

An acquisition agreement with Akmola Gold LLP was announced in 2011 which, subject to government waivers, would bring into the group two gold assets located just north of capital city , Astana. The combined resource of these assets is 440,000 oz. The waivers have not yet been given, as at March 2013.