Somituri Project - Location and Facilities
Location
The Licences associated with the “Somituri Project”, are contained within the Territories of Mambasa, and Wamba in the Districts of Ituri and Haut-Uele of Oriental Province in the north-east Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The “Somituri Camp” (Camp) is the support base for the greater “Somituri Project” and is located on the Imbo Licence. The village of Nia-Nia is located approximately 30 km south of the Camp and Kisangani, the Capital of Oriental Province, is about 350 km to the south-west of Nia-Nia.
The Camp is a 10 hour drive (±550 km) from Beni on an all-weather laterite road, with the exception of about 60 km from Beni to the Oriental Province border which is paved, or a one hour flight by helicopter. Beni is one of the nearest major cities to the Camp, has a population of 100 000 persons (2009) and is our administrative office for all of our exploration activities in the north-eastern DRC.
Bunia (international airport) and Beni (regional airport), DRC are accessible several days per week via scheduled commercial flights from Entebbe, Uganda. Entebbe is directly linked to South Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom and Asia via regularly scheduled commercial carriers. Entebbe is also linked to other African countries as well as Kinshasa. Entebbe is also linked to the DRC border points of Mahagi and Kasindi by paved highway and paved highway connects Entebbe to the deep sea port of Mambasa, in Kenya.
KGL-Somituri SPRL and Loncor Resources, jointly maintain a 1200 m long grass covered laterite base air-strip in Nia-Nia. The airstrip was rehabilitated in December of 2009 and it can accommodate propeller driven aircraft, including medium sized cargo planes.
Regional Towns and Villagers
The Somituri Project is close to an established road network with a number of towns located along the route from Beni to the Somituri Project and within a few kilometres of our licences. Shown below are a series of photographs from the three closest villagers, PK25, PK47 and PK51. The numerical values after “PK” indicate the distance of each village from Nia- Nia in km.
PK25
PK47
PK51
KGL-Somituri Sprl - Exploration Camp
The Somituri Camp (Camp) is a fully functional exploration camp, comprising: a main camp, a driller’s camp; a medical clinic and a sample preparation laboratory run by ALS Chemex of South Africa. Whilst the majority of accommodation is tented, office blocks and general facilities are of timber, brick and tin construction. All bricks have been sourced from the ruins of the former Belgian mining complex.
As part of our community development initiatives we employ extensively from the local community and rotate as many persons as we can through our work programmes, thereby ensuring that funds are distributed across local community groups.
Our Camp
Geology Department
Clinic
ALS Sample Preparation Laboratory
Our People