VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – The Ghanaian government has given the green light for TSX- and NYSE MKT-listed miner Asanko Gold to start mining operations at the Akwasiso deposit, in Ghana, ahead of the Dynamite Hill deposit, as previously planned.
The Vancouver-based company will benefit from greater mining flexibility by mining Akwasiso ahead of Dynamite Hill, since it is about 4 km closer to the carbon-in-leach processing facility, thereby reducing the transport and site establishment costs, as well as being of higher grade and larger than Dynamite Hill.
“With the successful in-fill drill program completed and timely approval from the regulatory authorities, it made perfect sense to accelerate Akwasiso ahead of Dynamite Hill given its proximity to the plant, lower capital costs and that it is a larger and higher grade deposit than Dynamite Hill.
“We continue to see 2017 as a year of two halves with the true benefit of Akwasiso to be realized in H2 as we leverage the benefits of Akwasiso’s oxide material through the volumetric upgrades in the processing facility that are tracking well ahead of schedule,” president and CEO Peter Breese stated in a news release Tuesday.
The positive permitting decision follows on the heels of a recently completed in-fill drill programme that substantially increased measured reserves by 62% to 214 500 oz of gold, held in 3.83-million tonnes grading 1.74 g/t, which represented a 26% increase in grade. The campaign also lifted the indicated resources by 79% to 6.72-million tonnes grading 1.49 g/t, for 322 500 oz of contained gold.
Located about 3 km north-east of the processing facility, Akwasiso is the largest satellite deposit and being at surface, requires minimal pre-strip or development work. Mining operations will focus initially on the oxide ore, which will supplement the ore feed to the existing processing facility as the capacity upgrades come on line as part of the ‘Project 5 Million’ upgrade to five-million tonnes a year, the company advised.
Asanko has awarded a local Ghanaian mining contractor responsibility for road and site preparations, which are already under way.
First ore is expected to be fed to the plant in June. Dynamite Hill has now been rescheduled to start mining in the first quarter of 2018, in line with the original Akwasiso timing.
Asanko plans to update the market on mining rates, grades and strip ratio for Akwasiso in the updated life-of-mine plan, which will be published as part of the expansion definitive feasibility study on June 5.
Meanwhile, Asanko also announced that the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency has issued the environmental permits for Dynamite Hill, Nkran extension and Adubiaso extension projects. Receiving these permits completed the permitting process for these satellite deposits, which are now ready for mining operations, the company advised.