Modern Mining Marchh 2017

MINING News

ASX-listed Universal Coal has reported that its New Clydesdale Colliery (NCC), located approximately 34 km south of eMalahleni in Mpumalanga Province, has supplied its first coal to Eskom. NCC is one of the oldest coal mines in New Clydesdale Colliery delivers first coal to Eskom South Africa, having been in production sporadically since 1949. It was acquired by Universal from Exxaro Resources in 2015 when it was on a care and maintenance basis. Universal returned the colliery to operations in September 2016. The recent

delivery of coal to Eskom is the first such delivery in the mine’s long history. In addition to the first coal sales to Eskom, Universal continues to produce and sell export quality coal under the off- take agreement already entered into and

The first overburden blast at New Clydesdale (photo: Universal Coal).

Positive results from Akwasiso drilling campaign Asanko Gold Inc, listed on the TSX and NYSE MKT, has reported positive initial results from the Akwasiso drilling campaign, which is currently underway targeting an upgrade of 3,85 Mt of inferred resources containing 193 000 ounces of gold to an indicated classification.

to the indicated classification,” comments Peter Breese, Asanko Gold’s President and CEO. “These near-surface, incremental oxide ores are cheap to mine and pro- cess and will form part of the 2018 mine plan, along with Nkran and Dynamite Hill, to supply 5 Mt/a of ore to the processing plant once the plant upgrades have been completed. The plant upgrades, which will be funded from internal cash resources, are currently tracking well ahead of schedule and we expect hot commissioning to com- mence early in Q4 2017. “Since we received the more conserva- tive resource model for Nkran, which we published in February 2017, Asanko has now embarked on a pit optimisation process to establish the optimal NPV for all eleven pits making up the Asanko Gold Mine min- eral reserve base. This optimisation will be included in the new feasibility study that is due for publication in Q2 2017.” 

increase gold production in 2018 as well as lower the all-in sustaining cost (AISC). Mining of the Akwasiso deposit is expected to commence during 2018 to augment mill feed fromboth the Nkran and Dynamite Hill pits, providing mining flex- ibility in anticipation of the commissioning of the Esaase pit and overland conveyor in H2 2018. The Akwasiso ounces are expected to have a lower cost profile than the current Nkran operations, thereby contributing to lowering AISC in 2018. The Akwasiso deposit is on an existing mining permit and only requires a supple- mentary permit application, which is well advanced. Asanko anticipates receiving full permits for Akwasiso in H2 2017. “The results received so far from the Akwasiso infill drilling programme support a significant upgrade of inferred resources

Akwasiso is a large scale satellite deposit located 5 km north-east of the process- ing facility at Asanko Gold Mine in Ghana, which is in the process of being upgraded to increase throughputs from 3,6 Mt/a to 5 Mt/a. The project’s capital costs, including the opening up of the Esaase deposit and the installation of the overland conveyor belt over the next two years, are fully funded from existing cash resources and cash gen- erated from operations over this period. Project 5 Million is expected to further

6  MODERN MINING  March 2017