Name and Location
Balogo gold project, Burkina Faso.

Client
Golden Rim Resources.

Project Description
A scoping study completed on the Netiana Lodes at the Balogo gold project envisages a contractor-mined openpit, delivering 440 000 t of ore to a modularised processing plant at average grade of 9.3 g/t gold.

An estimated 4.5-million tonnes of waste rock will also be mined and placed on a waste-rock dump during the two-year mine life. Tailings from the processing plant will be disposed of in an adjacent paddock tailings storage facility.
Several processing options have been considered. A small 30 t/h modularised plant is the preferred option, with a smaller 20 t/h plant as an alternate, lower capital, higher-operating cost solution.

Value
The estimated  capital cost for a new modularised 30 t/h plant is A$39-million.

Total capital expenditure (capex) has been estimated at A$46-million.

Duration
Golden Rim’s goal is to produce its first gold from the Netiana Lodes late in the second half 2014.

Latest Developments
Golden Rim has started an environmental-impact assessment (EIA) as part of a bankable feasibility study (BFS) on the Balogo project.

Socrege is conducting the EIA, which is expected to be completed by the end of June 2015 and is the longest timeline component of the BFS.

Other components of the BFS are expected to start in late September 2014, after the rainy season. Initially, Golden Rim intends to complete an infill drilling programme at Netiana to upgrade the gold resource. The plan is to use some of these drill holes for geotechnical, metallurgical and hydrological purposes. The drilling will be followed by mining and engineering studies.

Gecko announced in November that initial results from the gravity, flotation and intensive leach metallurgical testwork programme had yielded excellent (unoptimised) gravity recoveries on gold mineralisation from the Balogo project.

Using a two-stage gravity circuit, 52.8% of the gold was concentrated into 11.1% of the original mass, while he grade was increased from 28.9 g/t gold to 144.7 g/t gold. This was achieved at a relatively coarse grind size of 0.6 mm.

The two-stage gravity recovery result shows a significant improvement on the single-stage, 33.6% gravity gold recovery, at a similar coarse grind size of 0.85 mm. This was reported in the previous metallurgical testwork programme conducted as part of the scoping study that has been completed by Golden Rim in February 2013.

The gravity recovery can be improved with finer grinding. However, the objective of the testwork being conducted by Gekko is to assess the gravity recoveries at the coarser-feed grind size, preferred by gravity concentrators, thereby reducing comminution energy requirements and allowing for lower capex and operating expenditure processing options to be considered.

Flotation testwork is currently under way on the gravity tail to capture the remaining gold for intensive cyanide leaching of the combined gravity and flotation concentrates.

The BFS will assess the economic viability of installing a modular 30 t/h gravity and carbon-in-leach plant to exploit the resource at Netiana.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Coffey Mining (scoping study), Socrege (EIA).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Golden Rim Resources, tel +61 8 9481 5758, fax +61 8 9481 5759 or email info@goldenrim.com.au.
Coffey Mining Ghana, tel +233 24 494 7672, fax +233 21 760 476 or email contactus@coffey.com.
Socrege, tel +226 50 41 96 91 or email absmburkina@gmail.com.