Name of the Project
Kiaka gold project.

Location
About 45 km south of West African Resources’ (WAF’s) existing Sanbrado gold mine, in Burkina Faso.

Project Owner/s
WAF.

Project Description
A feasibility study concluded on the project in August 2022 has indicated that Kiaka will be a low-cost gold project, averaging 219 000 oz/y of gold production over an 18.5-year mine life from 2025.

The feasibility study is based on conventional openpit mining methods, with run-of-mine ore being directly fed to the crushing circuit. Mining operations will use a combination of 140 t and 230 t hydraulic excavators, complemented by 95 t dump trucks.

Kiaka’s free-milling gold ore will be processed through a conventional single-stage gyratory crushing and semiautogenous ball mill crusher milling circuit followed by carbon-in-leach processing.

The process plant will have a nameplate capacity of seven-million tonnes a year.

Potential Job Creation
None stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of $1.24-billion and an after-tax internal rate of return of 21.4%, with a 3.25-year payback on preproduction capital.

Capital Expenditure
$430-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Major works are scheduled from early 2023, with first gold expected in 2025.

Latest Developments
West African Resources told delegates on the first day of Paydirt’s Africa Downunder conference, held in Perth on August 31, that the company was considering expanding Kiaka’s nameplate capacity from the 7-million tonnes a year considered in the feasibility study to 8.4-million tonnes a year.

West African executive chairperson Richard Hyde has said the company also has the opportunity to expand such capacity further to more than ten-million tonnes a year through additional crushing or debottlenecking.

Early works at Kiaka are already under way.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
WAF, tel + 61 8 9481 7344 or email info@westafricanresources.com.