PERTH (miningweekly.com) – An updated feasibility study into the Wa gold project, in Ghana, has seen an increase in expected production and mine life, ASX-listed Azumah Resource reported on Monday.

Based on an inventory of 652 500 oz of gold, the Wa project was expected to deliver an average of 90 000 oz/y of gold, over a mine life of seven years.

This was compared with the production estimate of 74 000 oz/y, and a mine life of six years, estimated in the 2012 feasibility study.

The updated feasibility study estimated that the project would require a capital injection of about A$168-million, compared with the A$144-million estimated in 2012, with C1 cash operating costs over the mine life decreasing from the previous estimate of A$802/oz to A$697/oz.

“Provisional study results confirm a solid project with no technical, social or environmental impediments to development, improved fundamentals such as mine life, ore-grade and strip ratio, plus operating and capital costs in line with, if not better than, guidance provided when the ore reserves were issued last year,” said Azumah MD Stephen Stone.

He noted that the existing two-million-ounce mineral resource highlighted that any further reductions in operating costs would translate to enlarged pits and higher gold production.

“Recent exploration results confirm the 2 800 km² project’s underlying prospectivity and underpin our confidence that we will continue to increase mineral resources, convert these to ore reserves, and increase mine life.”

Additional work was planned to enhance overall returns at the Wa project, including a review of the operating costs to lift mineral resource to reserve conversion, a review of the plant configuration options to reduce operating costs, the continuation of exploration and government engagement regarding region-specific and other concessions to reduce capital and operating costs.