Modern Mining January 2018

MINING News

Roxgold receives permitting approval

Roxgold Inc, listed on the TSX, has announced that it has received permitting approval to develop the Bagassi South project from the Burkina Faso Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.

“We are extremely pleased to announce the permitting approval for the Bagassi South project. The approval of the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for Bagassi South allows us to confirm our development decision and begin mine develop- ment and construction for our first growth project on the Yaramoko concession,” stated John Dorward, President and CEO of Roxgold. “We would like to thank the gov- ernment of Burkina Faso and our stakeholders in the communities for their continued support and look forward to continuing our positive working relationship.” Roxgold is continuing to advance the development of the Bagassi South project with underground mine development and construction activities commencing in the first quarter of 2018. With the approval of the ESIA, the company has filed an appli- cation for an extension of its Exploitation (Mining) Permit to include the Bagassi South deposits, which marks the final step in the permitting process. A decision regarding the extension from the Burkina Faso government is expected in the sec- ond quarter of 2018. In November 2017, Roxgold announced the positive results of the Feasibility Study (FS) for the Bagassi South project. The FS envisions a satellite underground opera- tion at Bagassi South and an expanded processing facility at Yaramoko. The proj- ect would produce an average annual gold production of 40 000 ounces over a mine life of 4,2 years at average all-in sustaining costs of US$630/oz. The FS esti- mates the pre-production capital cost at US$29,6 million. The project benefits from nearby cur- rent operations at the Yaramoko gold project including personnel and infra- structure (camps, water and high voltage grid power). The initial access to the deposit will be

via a single ramp from surface to the 5265 level (45 m below surface). The ramp will ultimately be developed to a depth of 260 m below surface (5055 level), provid- ing access to 15 sublevels on 15 m vertical intervals. The ramp will be centrally posi- tioned along strike and three ore blocks will be accessed by on-vein development to the deposit limits. Similar to the operating 55 Zone, min- ing will be conducted using long hole retreat stoping with cemented rock backfill used to eliminate non-recoverable pillars to maximise mining recovery to 93 %. The plant expansionwill increase capac- ity from 270 000 t/a to 400 000 t/a. The original design of the existing Yaramoko plant considered a future expansion and the necessary allowances weremade in the layout and mechanical equipment selec- tion to facilitate a modular type expansion. The expansion will include: installa- tion of a secondary crushing circuit with a throughput of 100 t/h; conversion of the SAG mill to a ball mill, achieving a throughput of 50,2 t/h; an upgrade of the CIL circuit, consisting of an additional two adsorption tanks and an 8-m diameter high rate thickener; and an expansion of the gravity circuit, designed to recover 70 % of head grade, consisting of an additional Acacia leach reactor and two electrowinning cells.  The Bagassi South deposit is located close to the existing Yaramoko infrastructure.

Drilling at the Wahgnion project in Burkina Faso (photo: Teranga). at Sabodala as well as continued organic growth. Our top priority is to close the financing and proceed with construc- tion of Wahgnion. In addition, we are aggressively advancing exploration pro- grammes at both Golden Hill in Burkina Faso and Afema in Côte d’Ivoire. With a long-life mine that provides solid annual gold production and free cash flow, a sec- ond mine in development and a pipeline of quality organic growth assets, we are well-positioned to deliver on our vision of becoming the next multi-asset mid-tier gold producer in West Africa.”  “These results are outstanding and will help underpin the impending scop- ing study. This minimal extra testwork conducted improves the oxide sample flake distribution, confirms the initial data within experimental limitations, provides the additional data on the higher value Super Jumbo Flake (+500 µm) stream and confirms a premium saleable amorphous (-75 µm) product can be produced from both oxide and fresh samples,” he stated. “Every round of work at Caula provides more evidence of the proj- ect’s potential to become a low-cost graphite supplier to the fast-growing lithium battery and expandable graph- ite industries.” 

January 2018  MODERN MINING  7