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 project has an indicated and inferred resource of 6.3-million ounces, with significant upside potential.

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.

The PEA envisages yearly production of 325 000 oz over a 12-year life of mine.

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.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The PEA delivered has confirmed a net present value of $688-million at $1 250 gold price and 8% discount rate and an internal rate of return of 32%.

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
Amara has reported “exceptional” diamond drill (DD) and reverse circulation (RC) results from the 2014 drilling programme at its Yaoure gold project, with expectations that it will increase the mine’s mineral resource.

“The latest drilling results demonstrate the presence of significant high-grade areas within the Yaoure deposit, with exceptional intercepts such as 17 m at 7.35 g/t. They also underline the potential to increase the grade through infill drilling, as well as to expand the resource base,” says Amara CEO and chairperson John McGloin.

The outcomes of the programme will be used to calculate two mineral resource updates.

The first update, due in September, is expected to expand the current 6.3-million-ounce resource base, while the second, expected during the fourth quarter of this year, will likely shift the majority of the inferred resources within the $950/oz pit design into the indicated category.

The drilling programme will continue at the gold project until early October to provide further data for the second mineral resource update.

Nearly 105 DD holes have been completed since May, with nine under way. By August 8, the company had completed 27 950 m out of 57 000 m planned for the DD programme.

The first phase of RC drilling, which comprised 26 RC holes at 5 763 m, was completed in May and the second phase kicked off in June, with focus maintained on the CMA zone. A total of 10 543 m out of the targeted 23 000 m had been advanced.

“The results continue to confirm the continuity and high-grade nature of the CMA zone, with good correlation between the latest RC holes and previous DD holes within 50 m,” says McGloin.

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.