Modern Mining March 2018

MINING News

ate in a mechanised/automated operation with a strong sense of accountability. The operation is expected to create between 2 000 and 2 500 jobs. Additional roles will be required during the construction phase of the project. The footprint of the mine has been significantly simplified. The lease area has been reduced from 475 km 2 to 201 km 2 . The operational footprint has been sim- plified and is concentrated in a fenced location in the south, allowing for tighter security, access control and the demarca- tion of the mine from the neighbouring community. AngloGold Ashanti has a 100 % interest in Obuasi, which is located in the Ashanti region, 200 km north-west of Accra. The Obuasi mine was acquired by AngloGold in the merger with Ashanti Goldfields in 2004. The falling gold price in 2013 over- took restructuring efforts to improve the profitability of the operation.  activities have been completed. Early works at the site including clearing, fencing, building construction as well as the boxcut construction for the underground mine have commenced. The development of the ramp will begin in the third quarter of 2018. “We continue to see consistent oper- ating performance from Yaramoko. 2018 has started off ahead of our expectations and we remain confident that we will have another strong year ahead,” com- mented John Dorward, President and CEO of Roxgold. “Construction activities have started on schedule and are tracking to expectations at Bagassi South, our second high-grade underground mine, and we look forward to delivering first ore from the project in the fourth quarter.” 

Total cash costs are expected to average between US$590/oz and US$680/oz, while All-in Sustaining Costs are expected to be between US$750/oz and US$850/oz. The project delivers internal rates of return of between 16 % and 23 % at real gold prices of between US$1 100/oz and US$1 240/oz and is highly leveraged to the gold price. Initial project capital expenditure antici- pated over the first two-and-a-half years is estimated to be between US$450 million and US$500 million. After the completion of phase two, extended project capital expenditure of US$94million is expected to continue through to year six, covering the development of the Obuasi Deeps Decline to the lower level of the mine, refurbish- ment of the KMS shaft, installation of new underground pump stations and construc- tion of the flotation tailings storage facility. The development plan envisages a smaller but skilled workforce that can oper- mately 40 000 tonnes at 14,9 g/t of gold at the end of January 2018, which significantly de-risks the operation in 2018. Processing throughput rates have increased steadily through the fourth quar- ter to the end of January 2018, averaging above 23 700 tonnes per month for the last four months with January achieving a record of 24 363 tonnes milled at an average rate of 785 tonnes per day. Gold recoveries continue to be maintained at an average of 98,8 % to date since commissioning. Development and construction of the Bagassi South project, located 1,8 km south of the Yaramoko processing plant, is pro- gressing according to plan. Environmental and social permitting and compensation

development, and plant and infrastruc- ture refurbishment to enable production at a rate of 2 000 tonnes per day for the first operating year. This is expected to take roughly 18 months, with the first gold pour expected in the third quarter of 2019. The second phase includes refur- bishment of the underground materials handling system, shafts and ventilation; and construction of the primary crusher, the SAG/ball circuit, carbon regeneration, a new gold room and a tailings storage facility. This is expected to take a further 12 months and enable the operation to climb to 4 000 tonnes per day. The operation is then expected to ramp up to 5 000 tonnes per day, over the following three years. Mine production for the first 10 years will be focused on the upper orebodies and is expected to average 350 000 oz to 450 000 oz at an average head grade of 8,1 g/t. In the second 10 years, produc- tion averages 400 000 oz to 450 000 oz.

Yaramoko operating above nameplate capacity TSX-listed Roxgold Inc has provided an update on its operations and on the prog- ress of the Bagassi South project at its Yaramoko mine in Burkina Faso.

Performance at the existing 55 Zone mine has achieved elevated production metrics across several fronts in recent months. Since October 2017, daily mine production has averaged 1 124 tonnes per day or 50 % above nameplate capacity of 750 tonnes per day. This outperformance has been driven by a significant increase in stope production tonnes, as opposed to development tonnes, with tonnes from stoping increasing from 55 % in October 2017 to 80 % in January 2018. As a result, the Run-of-Mine stocks totalled approxi-

March 2018  MODERN MINING  7