VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold miner Golden Star Resources has started stoping activities at its high-grade Prestea underground gold mine, in Ghana, the company announced on Friday.
Based in Toronto, the West Africa-focused miner, which also owns the nearby Wassa mine on the prolific Ashanti Gold Belt, said it conducted successful blasting of initial ore from the first stope in the West Reef orebody on Wednesday.
The first stope is being mined using mechanised shrinkage, with Alimak raise climbers, and it will be hauled to surface for processing via the Central shaft.
Since mid-April, Golden Star has been processing development ore from Prestea Underground and, in the second quarter, the mine delivered its maiden gold production for Golden Star of 325 oz.
Prestea Underground is expected to achieve commercial production in the fourth quarter. The mine has compliant mineral reserves of 1.09-million tonnes at 13.93 g/t gold.
It is expected to produce 90 000 oz/y of gold at a cash operating cost of $468/oz and an all-in sustaining cost of $615/oz, over an initial mine life of five-and-a-half years.
The company advised that exploration drilling was under way at the mine, with the aim of increasing the production profile and extending the mine life.
The Wassa Underground gold mine started commercial production in January.
The company has guided for a 2017 output of 255 000 oz to 280 000 oz of gold, with cash operating costs of between $780/oz and $860/oz.