Name and Location
Yaoure gold project, Côte d’Ivoire.

Client
Amara Mining.

Project Description
A preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the Yaoure project has demonstrated a compelling gold development project.

The tank-leach process plant, with a capacity of eight-million tonnes a year, has been identified as providing the best return on capital of the options evaluated, although further optimisation studies are expected to provide numerous alternatives for improvement of this scenario.

Yaoure is planned to be developed and mined as a single openpit operation, comprising the CMA and Yaoure Central deposits. It is designed as a bulk mining operation and is based on an owner-operator scenario, using drill-and-blast techniques, with trucks and shovels for loading and haulage, will have an average primary fleet of four 240 t PC3000s and six 90 t trucks.

This will deliver 94.6-million tonnes of oxide and sulphide material to the processing plant at an average head grade of 1.39 g/t containing 4.2-million ounces of gold. The resulting strip ratio is relatively low, at 5.2:1, owing to the shallow-dipping nature of the mineralised zones and the ratio is expected to be further improved through in-fill drilling of ‘information gaps’ within the resource area.

The life-of-mine plan focuses on achieving a consistent rate of feed to the processing plant, while also balancing grade consistency with the waste stripping requirements over the life of the project.

Metallurgical testwork has demonstrated high gold recoveries over 24-hours using cyanide leaching. Whole ore processing through tank leaching, followed by carbon-in-pulp (CIP), was selected as the basis for the PEA as it is the most cost-effective processing method, with an estimated design recovery rate of 95%, based on the gold recovery achieved in the testwork of 96.2%.

The flow sheet comprises run-of-mine material entering a three-stage crushing circuit followed by ball milling to 106 µm. Gold is then leached by cyanidation in a series of open, mechanically agitated tanks, where oxygen is added to the process.

Leached gold is then recovered using the CIP process followed by a standard elution circuit for gold recovery into doré.

Value
The plant and infrastructure capital cost for the project is $274-million, plus an engineering contingency of $42-million. A further $92-million has been estimated for the mining fleet, which could be deferred by contracting or leasing.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
The results of the PEA have indicated that Yaoure should be taken to the next level of engineering study and economic assessment. Work on the optimisation opportunities identified should be undertaken in conjunction with in-fill drilling before deciding on the final mine development options to move forward to a prefeasibility study.

In terms of permitting, as the project has reverted to the exploration phase, the environmental, social and community work is being refocused on identifying the environmental and social issues likely to affect the potential larger-scale resumption of mining in the future. A consultation programme with government and community stakeholders has begun to discuss the path forward and both parties have voiced their support for the development of the project.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Amara Mining, tel +44 20 7398 1420 or fax +44 20 7398 1421