Modern Mining June 2017

WEST AFRICA

Bassari to start early work at Makabingui

A SX-listed Bassari Resources, which has a portfolio of exploration permits in south-eastern Senegal, has recently provided an update on its Makabingui gold project. It says in the update that the compa- ny and its JV partner have been authorised by Senegal’s Minister of Mines to incorporate the exploitation company which will develop the project and to commence the pre-development stage of mining operations. The pre-development stage will include infrastructure work such as the rehabilitation of roads, upgrade of the camp, fencing of the min- ing area, concreting to expand the plant area for the processing plant upgrade (there is an exist- ing gravity plant on site) and dam reparation. The Minister of Mines has also allocated a corridor of 20 km 2 (outside the Makabingui exploitation permit) for local villagers to recom- mence artisanal mining. Bassari will work with villagers and Department of Mining personnel, providing a geologist and technicians to locate gold anomalies in the proposed corridor. The Makabingui project currently hosts a

mineral resource which comprises 11,9 Mt averaging 2,6 g/t gold for a contained 1 mil- lion ounces classified into the indicated and inferred resource categories. Phase 1 of mine development will see Bassari mining four high-grade pits within the resource, with the biggest being Pit 1 which hosts around 460 kt at 7,5 g/t gold. The open- pit project will produce an estimated 171 000 ounces at a C1 cash cost of US$683/oz over a period of just over three years. The capital costs for the open-pit stage of mining are very low, totalling approximately US$12 million. US$5,5 million of this will be required to upgrade the existing plant to incorporate a CIL circuit. Payback is estimated within 12 months of the start of production. This initial phase of operations will be extended to mine deeper resources by open- pit or underground methods. Bassari has already completed an underground scoping study which has provided an assessment of the potential for mining the deeper resources from access declines within the pits. 

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June 2017  MODERN MINING  41