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. It 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 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 a $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
Production is expected top start in 2017.

Latest Developments
The 2014 drilling programme at Amara’s Yaoure gold project has confirmed the presence of high-grade areas in the Yaoure central zone and demonstrated strong continuity in the high-grade CMA zone.

Amara chairperson and CEO John McGloin says that, with 331 boreholes drilled and 11 rigs on site, the 2014 Yaoure campaign is the largest drilling programme in Africa this year, pointing out that the drilling was completed on time and within budget.

The company will use the data collected to deliver a second mineral resource update for the project in December. Amara expects the majority of the inferred resources within the $950/oz pit design to be upgraded to the indicated category, from which ore reserves could be determined.

This data will then form the basis of the prefeasibility study set to be delivered during the first quarter of next year.

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.