Name of the Project
Sanbrado gold project.

Location
The Sanbrado project is located about 90 km east-south-east of Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso.

The Burkina Faso government is entitled to a free-carried 10% interest in the project once mining starts.

Client
West African Resources.

Project Description
The openpit feasibility study envisages the mining of the Mankarga 1 (M1), Mankarga 3 (M3) and Mankarga 5 (M5) deposits, and will comprise several openpits, all within 1 km to 2 km of the proposed plant site.

The M1 South deposit hosts about 1.2-million tonnes of ore, grading 14.4 g/t gold for 556 000 oz of gold in the indicated category, and a further 0.41-million tonnes, grading 14.4 g/t gold for 191 000 oz in the inferred category.

The M1 deposit will be mined in a north and a south pit. The M1 South pit is about 540 m long, 360 m wide and 180 m deep. The North pit is 350 m long, 240 m wide and 90 m deep.

The M5 deposit hosts an estimated 35.9-million tonnes, grading 1.3 g/t gold for 1.46-million ounces of indicated gold, and a further 12-million tonnes at 1.1 g/t gold for 410 000 oz of inferred gold.

M5 is a 2-km-long pit, with an average width of 300 m and depth of 170 m at the southern end. The pit has been designed so that the southern higher-grade portion can be mined independently of the northern portion of the pit. The northern and southern portions will be mined in two stages (an initial starter pit and then a cutback to final limits) to target higher-grade ore earlier in the schedule and defer waste removal until later in the mine life.

The M3 deposit has two small, predominately oxide pits less than 40 m deep.

Mining will be undertaken by an experienced contractor, with West African Resources retaining responsibility for technical services comprising mine planning, production scheduling, grade control, surveying, supervision and management of contract mining operations.

The project has an initial mine life of 8.75 years. The proposed plant comprises a conventional semiautogenous milling circuit, gravity and carbon-in-leach processing.

The process plant will have a nameplate throughput of two-million tonnes a year, with an availability of 8 000 hrs/y and a nominal capacity of 250 t/h.

The plant will be located to the south-west of the M5 pit, adjacent to the water storage facility and tailings storage facility (TSF). The plant will be supplied from the M1 and M5 pits, with only small amounts of material from the M3 pit.

The process plant will comprise a crushing circuit with a designed throughput of 450 t/h and availability of 6 000 h/y on a 24-hour-a-day operation.

Crushed product will be transferred to an open stockpile, with a total capacity of 15 000 t.

An apron feeder installed in a reclaim tunnel will reclaim ore and directly feed the milling circuit using the mill feed conveyor. An emergency reclaim feeder will also be installed in the reclaim tunnel to provide feed for the mill when reclaiming dead ore from the stockpile using a front-end loader.

The milling circuit is designed for a throughput of 250 t/hr, operating with an availability of 8 000 hrs/yto provide a design grind of 80% passing 90 µ.

A gravity recovery circuit on cyclone underflow will comprise two centrifugal concentrators and an intensive leach reactor for the treatment of the gravity concentrate, treating nominally 50% of the cyclone underflow.

A conventional carbon-in-leach circuit will consist of seven adsorption tanks, treating the cyclone overflow.

Metal recovery and refining will consist of an elution circuit, electrowinning cells and smelting.

A high-rate tailings thickener will be provided for the recycling of water that contains cyanide and precious metal values, and for the generation of a high-density slurry to be pumped to the TSF. A TSF will be built 1.5 km north-east of the process plant for the deposition of the process plant tailings.

Production of 150 000 oz/y of gold over the first three years of the project has been forecast and 93 000 oz/y gold over the current nine-year mine life.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of $143-million and internal rate of return of 27%, with a 2.1 payback on initial capital.

Value
Preproduction capital has been estimated at $131-million, including preproduction and contingency.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Gold developer West African Resources will raise A$35-million through a share placement to fund predevelopment work at its Sanbrado gold project, in Burkina Faso.

The company has said that about 109.37-million shares will be placed with existing shareholders and global institutional investors, priced at 32c a share.

The placement will be completed in one tranche under the company’s existing placement capacity and will not require shareholder approval.

The funds raised will be used to start predevelopment activities at Sanbrado, including gaining access to the M1 South deposit, constructing on-site water storage and upgrading camp facilities.

Funds will also be used to accelerate drilling at the existing deposits and expand the regional exploration programme.

The Sanbrado project was granted environmental approval at the end of April this year, with an updated mining licence expected in mid-2018.

An updated feasibility study for the Sanbrado project is on track for completion in the second quarter of this year, along with a resource update.

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.