Overview
Olympus’ Directors, David and John Seton and their family began investigating mining & exploration interests in Vietnam in 1989. The Seton family started developing contacts and conducting business throughout the country in the early 1990s as venture capitalists in mining, construction, agriculture, and manufacturing. In 1996, the brothers introduced Olympus, an inactive company, to its first joint venture in northern Vietnam. Later in 1997, the company’s key management negotiated the acquisition of its current projects in central Vietnam (Bong Mieu & Phuoc Son) from Indochina Goldfields. As a result of these transactions, the Setons were able to successfully utilize their country expertise gained over the previous eight years to secure the leading position as Vietnam’s primary foreign gold explorer. Olympus has continued to build on its first mover status by becoming the first foreign invested joint venture to develop a modern gold mine in Vietnam since the 1940s.
Local History
Bong Mieu has a long history as a centre for gold mining activity going back hundreds of years and possibly as far back since the first millennia AD. The Cham people were early miners who recovered alluvial gold from the Bong Mieu River and coarse visible gold from Ho Gan (Bong Mieu Central).
Early French records state that mining activity at Bong Mieu had ceased approximately 50 years prior to the French arrival in 1895. The date of cessation of mining was based on the extent and size of the vegetative regrowth found within the Cham workings and coincides with the first arrival of French troops in DaNang in 1858.
The first record of French activity at Bong Mieu is in 1895 when they formed a mining syndicate (Société Des Mines De Bong Mieu) to explore Nui Kem deposits (Bong Mieu Underground). Upon the failure and liquidation of the syndicate at Bong Mieu, a new company was formed in 1901 and commenced full production in April 1903. A viable mining operation continued until 1919 when the mine closed due to poor metal prices.
The mine reopened in 1932 and production continued until 1941 when mining operations stopped as a result of the Japanese occupation of Vietnam. On the basis of available data the French likely produced 500,000 t at a recovered rate of 5.6 to 6g/t Au.
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