JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed West Africa-focused gold producer Perseus Mining has reached several more milestones on the path to implementing its strategy of transforming into a multijurisdictional, multimine producer of more than 500 000 oz/y by 2021.
In a statement released on Monday, the company said that full credit committee approval of a $60-million project debt facility had been received by Macquarie Bank and BNP Paribas, the prospective lenders for Perseus’s Sissingué mine, in Côte d’Ivoire.
“The steady progress that continues to be made by Perseus towards the implementation of our corporate growth strategy is very encouraging. Not only is our Edikan gold mine in Ghana performing very well and on track to achieve production and cost guidance for the current half-year, but sound progress is also being made with the financing and development of our second mine at Sissingué in Côte d’Ivoire,” noted MD Jeff Quartermaine.
Final documentation and the satisfaction of conditions for the facilities are due for completion in the fourth quarter, by which time funds should be available for drawdown.
In the interim, development work at Sissingué, funded from the proceeds of a recent equity offering by Perseus, has advanced and the project is on schedule for the production of first gold in the last quarter of 2017.
Meanwhile, with Perseus expecting to expand its operating activities to include the Edikan gold mine, in Ghana, as well as Sissingué, by the end of 2017, and with the prospect of developing a third mine at Yaouré, also in Côte d’Ivoire, the company has appointed Chris Woodall as COO.
Woodall will be based at Perseus’s corporate office in Perth, but will spend a significant amount of his time in West Africa overseeing the growth of the company’s gold mining operations.