An amended prefeasibility study (PFS) for TSX-listed Tanzania Royalty Exploration’s Buckreef gold mine project, in Tanzania, indicates that the project can support a 1.50-million-tonne-a-year mine for a period of 16 years.

About 822 000 oz of gold is expected to be produced over the life of the mine.

The company this week filed for an amended PFS for the Buckreef gold mine project as a replacement to its technical report filed in May 2017.

Ore will be mined from four openpits and then sent for processing at a plant located at Buckreef. The plant is designed to achieve gold recovery of 92.3% and 85% for the oxides and sulphides material, respectively, over the life of the project.

The PFS outlines that the project's estimated initial capital outlay for the earthmoving equipment, processing plant and related infrastructure will be about $76.5-million, which includes a 15% contingency with sustaining costs of $22.95-million over the life of the project.

The life-of-mine average cash operating cost is estimated at $735/oz of gold.

The after-tax project net present value is estimated at $130.96-million and the internal rate of return (IRR) at 74%. The simple payback period for the project is estimated at four years.

However, the PFS does not address mineral resources at depth, the company said on Tuesday, noting that the proven and probable ounces reported are only from the openpit designs.

The company intends to employ additional drilling and analysis to not only upgrade the inferred material into higher categories, but to also further define the prospects at depth.

"We are delighted with the results of this independent PFS. We have faithfully and continually pursued our goals at Buckreef, and this study clearly indicates the value of the Buckreef project,” executive chairperson James Sinclair commented.

He added that the company anticipates even more reserves to become known after implementing the planned close-spaced grade control drilling programme, which will enable the company to determine the gold reserves which exist in excess of what is known from the PFS at this time.

According to acting CEO Jeffrey Duval, the mining and processing components are simple, straightforward operations using common earthmoving methods and equipment, and the company’s planned state-of-the-art plant design makes use of standard gravity / carbon-in-leach plant technology used worldwide.

He further added that the PFS confirms everything the company has known about its Buckreef project, and it is gratified by the mineral reserves officially defined in the PFS.

The PFS is an in-depth independent study, which addresses the continued refinement of pit-optimised mining reserves, the mine production schedule, the process plant ore feed schedule and financial projections and analysis based on comprehensive cost estimations for building and operating the processing plant and mining and processing equipment costs for the Buckreef project.