PERTH (miningweekly.com) – East-Africa focused gold developer Chalice Gold Mines on Monday reported that its feasibility study for the Koka gold deposit, in Eritrea, found that owner mining would significantly reduce the life-of-mine operating costs.

The ASX-listed company said in a statement that the feasibility study has found that the operating costs could be further reduced by a simplified plant design, which would incorporate a single-stage crushing facility, followed by a single-stage semiautogenous grinding mill, with recoveries of 95% and a low reagent consumption.

The feasibility study remained on track to be completed in July.

Chalice plans to start production at the Koka deposit in 2011.

The feasibility study follows the completion of the scoping study, in October last year. As part of the scoping study, the terms of reference for the social and environmental-impact assessment (EIA) was developed for the Koka deposit, and submitted to the Eritrean government for feedback as part of an iterative process for the completion of both the feasibility study and the social and EIA, leading to the approval of a mining licence and project approval.

The Koka deposit forms part of the Zara gold project, and has an estimated total mineral reserve of 5,04-million tons, at 5,8 g/t gold, for a contained mineral reserve of 944 000 oz.

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