PERTH (miningweekly.com) – West Africa-focused Signature Metals’ study into the viability of restarting mining and processing at the Konongo gold project, in Ghana, was nearing completion, the ASX-listed explorer said on Wednesday.

Signature said it would submit the completed study to the Minerals Commission of Ghana to support its application for an extension of its mining licence at Konongo.

It is anticipated that the results of the study would be released during the current quarter.

In its interim results for the period ending December 2009, Signature noted that it was also carrying out environmental studies for the restart of the project.

The environmental study consultant would be responsible for completing a baseline data collection programme, the identification and assessment of environmental and social impacts associated with the mining operations, and the preparation of an environmental-impact statement (EIS) document for the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Authority.

Signature said that the EIS would be completed by the second half of this year, at which point the company would be able to apply for an environmental permit to restart mining and processing at Konongo.

The Konongo gold project comprises 192 km² of granted tenure and contains 16 known gold deposits along 12 km of strike. The project also houses a 350 000-t/y carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing plant.

The total resource for the project is estimated at around 19,6-million tons at a grade of 2,02 g/t gold for 1,27-million ounces of contained gold.

During the period under review, Signature started a substantial drilling programme at the Konongo project. Diamond drilling started in September 2009, with aircore drilling also carried out during the last quarter of 2009. Reverse circulation drilling started in January 2010.

Aircore drilling was carried out on the old Konongo tailings dam during the December quarter, which contains residual waste material from processing at the historical mne, which was operational between 1918 and 1986. Records show that about 2,8-million tons of ore was processed at a head grade of 15,7 g/t recovering about 1,4-million ounces.

Preliminary metallurgical test work indicated that recoveries of over 60% were achievable from this material, with recoveries as high as 80% being recorded. Signature said that further work would be carried out this month, which would involve better simulating the metallurgical flow sheet for the existing CIL plant retreating the tailings material, as well as testing different methods to potentially increase recoveries.

A Joint Ore Reserve Committee-compliant resource of 1,75-million tons at a grade of 1,09 g/t gold for about 61 150 oz of contained gold had been finalised for the tailings dam.

Signature added that the old Konongo tailings dam was just one of a number of surface stockpiles/dumps which the company was evaluating to determine if they could provide initial mill feed for the existing CIL plant. The likely cost of reclaiming these stockpiles was anticipated to be lower than mining new ore making them potentially highly viable sources of feed.

Sampling and surveying of these stockpiles is under way to better quantify the grades and tonnages available.