Name and Location
New Liberty gold project, Liberia.

Client
Aureus Mining.

Project Description
New Liberty will be Liberia’s first commercial gold mine and Aureus’ first mine in its highly prospective 546 km² licence area.

The gold deposit, which lies within the Bea Mountain mining licence, has a total proven and probable reserve of 8.5-million tonnes, grading 3.4 g/t gold.

Total resources comprise an estimated 651 000 t, grading 4.77 g/t gold in the measured category; 9.15-million tonnes, grading 3.55 g/t gold in the indicated category; and 5.73-million tonnes, grading 3.2 g/t gold in the inferred category.

The measured and indicated resources are generally located within the first 200 m below surface. The inferred resource remains open at depth.

A feasibility study completed on the project envisioned an openpit mining operation, extracting ore at a nominal rate of 1.1-million tonnes a year. The openpit will comprise two adjacent and interconnecting pits.

The mining schedule expects the operation to produce 8.7-million tonnes of ore, grading 3.3 g/t, with an associated 132-million tonnes of waste, and an average life-of-mine stripping ratio of 15:1 over a mine schedule of 8.5 years.

A steady-state mining rate is planned after the initial period of waste prestripping at an annualised plant feed rate of 1.1-million tonnes. The yearly waste mining rate is 22.2-million tonnes for the first five years, followed by 10.6-million tonnes, 5.7-million tonnes and 2-million tonnes respectively each year thereafter. This will result in an average waste mining rate of 16.2-million tonnes over the estimated eight-year mine life.

The waste material will be placed in a dump to the south of the pit for the first four years of production, following which the bulk of the waste material will be backfilled into the Larjor pit. A mining contractor will be used for all earthmoving activities and a conventional truck and shovel method will be used for mining operations.

The mining project includes a process plant, offices, workshops, a generator power plant, housing and warehouses, a mining camp, a tailings storage facility (TSF), a rock dump, an explosives bay, various ore stockpiles and a stream diversion, referred to as the Marvoe Creek diversion channel (MCDC).

Value
The initial capital cost of the project is estimated at $136-million, which excludes contingency, but includes the design and development of the processing plant, mining establishment and prestrip, general mine infrastructure and power supply, tailings dam construction, creek diversion and general infrastructure.

Duration
First production is expected in 2015.

Latest Developments
Aureus has reported the arrival of the ball mill at New Liberty, together with the mill motors and primary crusher.
The engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract to construct the New Liberty plant is 60% complete.

The first steel erection started in May 2014 and is progressing on schedule – gold room and screen circuits are 90% complete, the primary crusher is 75% complete and the carbon-in-leach (CIL) tank bases and shells are 30% complete.

Earthworks are almost complete.

Civils are progressing on schedule – gold room foundations, electrowinning circuit and raw water tank foundations are complete, plant conveyors and thickeners are 95% complete, the mill foundation is 90% complete, the CIL tanks and detox are 85% complete and mill stockpile foundations are 40% complete.

The MCDC is 85% complete, with the diversion channel completed and spillway gabions and dams nearing completion.

The TSF is nearing completion – all bush clearing and TSF wall keyway excavation and back-fill are complete and the dam wall is nearing completion.

The village relocation started in April 2014 and 115 families have been successfully relocated.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Golder Associates Ghana (environmental- and social-impact assessment scoping study, TSF and MCDC design work); DRA Mineral Projects (EPCM design) and Australian Mining Consultants (National Instrument 43-101 resource classification and openpit and mining optimisation studies).

On Budget and on Time?
New Liberty remains on track to deliver first gold in the first quarter of 2015.

Contact Details for Project Information
Aureus Mining CEO David Reading, tel +44 20 7257 2930.
Golder Associates Ghana, tel +233 302 978 819/23 or fax +27 11 315 0317.
DRA Mineral Projects, tel +27 11 202 8600.
Australian Mining Consultants, tel +61 3 8601 3300, fax +61 3 8601 3399 or email amcmelb@amcconsultants.com.au.