JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Metallurgical testwork carried out at Aim-listed investment company Armadale’s Mpokoto gold project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has confirmed recoveries of 84% to 92%, significantly increasing the company’s confidence in the project’s proposed flow sheet.

Mpokoto, which was situated in the DRC’s Katanga province, had a total mineral resource of 678 000 oz of gold from 14.58-million tonnes. The company was now focused on “rapidly” advancing this project into production in the first half of 2016.

Armadale director Justin Lewis noted that the scope and scale of the project continued to develop in line with the company’s expectations, with a view to being able to deliver a low capital and operational expenditure, commercial gold mining project in the near future.

“The results of this metallurgical testwork confirm the results of previous testwork and significantly increases management’s confidence in the design of the processing plant to extract the gold,” he said.

Lewis added that Mpokoto continued to offer highly attractive returns and near-term production potential, with robust economics even at low gold prices.

“Over the next few months, we remain focused on completing the funding of the project in parallel with the completion of a definitive feasibility study,” Lewis noted.

Armadale was in active discussions with potential funding partners to secure the $20-million in capital required to start construction of the project.

“In addition, once the wet season has come to an end, we will be undertaking a drilling programme with the intention of further expanding the resource at Mpokoto,” he said.

Last year, Armadale announced the results of an expanded scoping study for Mpokoto, which demonstrated a post-tax net present value of $55.3-million based on a discount rate of 8% and a gold price of $1 250/oz.

The project covered four mining licence areas, with the licences valid for an initial 30-year term from September 30, 2014.