JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Gold explorer and developer Amara Mining expects the post-tax net present value of its 100%-owned Yaoure project, in Côte d’Ivoire, to reach $555-million based on a discount rate of 8% and a gold price of $1 200/oz.

The company further highlighted that, following an updated prefeasibility study, it expected an internal rate of return (IRR) of 38% at the $1 200/oz price. The IRR would decrease to 25% at a $1 000/oz gold price.

The mine was expected to produce 248 000 oz/y mine over the first five years.

For the remainder of its 15-year life, the mine was expected to produced 203 000 oz/y from a single openpit operation containing 3.2-million ounces.

Meanwhile, the company said it would need to invest upfront capital cost of $334-million, including $44-million contingency costs and $60-million for an owner-operated mining fleet.

Additional work was now being completed, including reviewing other smaller plant sizes, to confirm and refine the parameters of the project to take it through to a bankable feasibility study.
 
“I am delighted to be able to deliver materially improved economics for our Yaoure gold project, including the 100% increase in the project’s IRR.  The optimised PFS has achieved our key aims to significantly increase the average head grade going to the processing plant and to significantly decrease the upfront capital cost. 

“As a result of the higher grade, Yaoure’s strong production profile is maintained despite using a smaller processing plant.  The reduced capital cost is also better tailored to the current capital constrained market environment,” Amara CEO John McGloin commented.

He added that the project’s other metrics have also improved substantially, cementing Yaoure’s position as one of the few gold development projects that achieved this type of IRR. 

“Owing to the excellent existing infrastructure of Côte d’Ivoire, it benefits from exceptionally low operating costs and we expect Yaoure to be among one of the lowest-cost, largest new gold mines in Africa. 

“We are completing work to confirm that the 4.5-million-ton-a-year plan is the optimal processing plant size in light of the significant reduction in the cost estimates we received during the optimisation work and I expect the results to further highlight the exceptional economics and versatility of the project,” McGloin added.