Crew Gold vowing to triple its production

Vancouver Crew Gold (CRU-T) is hoping to triple its production rate to 500,000 oz. this year and hinted that it will make an acquisition prior to the end of 2007.

Crew already has an operating gold mine the Nalunag –in Greenland, which is expected to produce up to 100,000 oz. this year. Its Lefa mine in Guinea, West Africa is expected to add up to 350,000 oz. to that amount from heap leaching operations.

However, aside from the expansion in Guinea, the Vancouver company said it will either buy an open pit mine that produces about 300,000 oz per year, or merge with a rival to enable it to reach its longer term production goal of one million oz. annually by 2010.

I expect Crew will look like a very different company by December, Crew chief executive officer Jan Vestrum told Bloomberg news service during the Mining Indaba conference in Cape Town.

Vestrums expansion plan is expected to make the Lefa mine in Guinea the African countrys largest, with production of half a million oz.

Crew has been approached by parties interested in buying the mine, he said, without mentioning any names.

Crew also has a gold mine in the Philippines, which is equipped with a 500 tonne-per-day processing plant, which is expanded to allow the Masara operation to reach targeted production of 140,000 oz this year.

On February 8, Crew shares rose 2 to $2.85 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.