Name and Location
Mankarga 5 gold project, Burkina Faso.

Client
West African Resources.

Project Description
A prefeasibility study (PFS) completed on the Mankarga 5 project has shown the project to be robust, generating significant early cash flow and producing an average of 69 000 oz/y over the first three years at a cash cost of $428/oz. The PFS assumes throughput of 1.6-million tonnes a year, which is in line with the capacity of the plant the company acquired in 2014.

The PFS proposes the development of the Mankarga 5 deposit using conventional truck and excavator openpit mining methods – including drill-and-blast and load-and-haul – using mining contractors.

The final openpit footprint will be about 2 400 m long, up to 300 m wide and have a maximum depth of 130 vertical metres. Total material movement over the life-of-mine (LoM) is estimated at 33.9-million tonnes, including 11.2-million tonnes of plant feed for a 2:1 LoM waste-to-ore strip ratio. More than 87% of the plant feed is classified as oxide and transitional material. Strongly oxidised material is expected to be free-dig, with paddock-scale drilling and blasting required for the remainder of the material.

About 13% of the total material is hard fresh rock, which will require engineered blasting.

The PFS assumes that Mankarga 5 material will be processed by conventional heap-leach processing, with an initial production throughput of 1.6-million tonnes a year.

Column heap-leach cyanidation testwork to date has confirmed heap-leach potential. LoM recoveries average 80%. Testwork has also demonstrated low cyanide consumption of 0.3 kg/t to 5 kg/t.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value (NPV) of $117-million, at a 5% discount rate, and a posttax NPV of $86-million.

It also has an estimated internal rate of return of 63%, with a 14-month payback on capital, owing to strong early project cash flow.

Value
Preproduction capital is estimated at $46.6-million, including $8.7-million in working capital and contingency.

Duration
Production is targeted for early 2016.

Latest Developments
West African Resources expects to complete the bankable feasibility study by the third quarter of 2015.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
West African Resources, tel + 61 8 9481 7344, fax + 61 8 9481 7355 or email info@westafricanresources.com.