Modern Mining February 2017

MINING News

Commercial production achieved at Wassa Underground in Ghana

sold in three separate sales and achieved prices up to US$41 500 per carat. Previous development plans for Mothae have predominantly been focused on larger-scale mining and processing sce- narios. In contrast, Lucapa will be adopting a staged, low capital and low risk approach to developing the kimberlite mine. Lucapa and the GOL will develop the Mothae mine in two phases. Phase 1 is designed to generate early cash flows within 12 months of acquisition from a low up-front capital investment.The production plan involves processing approximately 2 Mt of weathered surface kimberlite mate- rial (including previous stockpiledmaterial) over a minimum period of three years via conventional open-pit mining. The planned treatment rate is 720 000 t/a. The mining costs during this phase will be minimised because the weathered surface material at Mothae can be mined as ‘free dig’ which does not require con- ventional drilling or blasting. In addition, the mine plan includes very limited waste stripping. Capital expenditure costs to bring Phase 1 into production are estimated at approximately US$12 million, which includes upgrading and improving the pro- cess plant to a capacity of 100 t/h, installing XRT technology to more efficiently recover large Type IIa diamonds and changing the plant front-end with further modifications to de-bottleneck the crushing. During Phase 1 production, Lucapa will undertake additional studies to determine the scale and development of the Phase 2 plan, which will involve processing of material at higher rates from the deeper unweathered zone on a conventional open-pit, drill and blast mining method. 

Golden Star Resources, listed on the NYSE MKT, TSX and the Ghana Stock Exchange, says it has achieved commercial produc- tion at its Wassa underground gold mine (Wassa Underground) in Ghana, effective January 1, 2017. The project construction of Wassa Underground, including the installation of all ancillary infrastructure, is essentially complete and operational, in accordance with the company’s planned schedule and budget. Gold production is anticipated to con- tinue to ramp up during 2017 as Golden Star’s mining operations begin to access the B Shoot, which is a higher grade area

Chief Executive Officer of Golden Star, commented: “Achieving commercial pro- duction at Wassa Underground marks the successful completion of a 17-month construction period. It is also another important milestone in our transforma- tion into a high grade, non-refractory gold producer. Golden Star also anticipates that it will benefit from Wassa Underground’s lower cost production, as a result of the higher grade ore being fed into the Wassa processing plant. I want to thank our project construction team for their out- standing efforts as Wassa Underground was constructed safely, on schedule and within our capital budget.” 

of the Wassa Underground ore- body. The company plans to begin longitudinal stoping of the B Shoot in the first quarter of 2017, with the larger, transverse stopes expected to be accessed in the third quarter of 2017. Since Golden Star blasted the first stope atWassa Underground in July 2016, the company has been mining development and stope ore in the F Shoot. Total gold production from Wassa Underground in 2016 was 11 062 ounces, with the fourth quarter accounting for 7 865 ounces of this total. Total gold production from theWassa Main Pit in 2016 was 93 319 ounces with 21 411 ounces of this being produced in the fourth quarter. Sam Coetzer, President and

Wassa Underground, seen here, is now supplementing the open-pit production at Wassa (photo: Golden Star Resources).

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