Name of the Project
Tulu Kapi gold project.
Location
The project is located in western Ethiopia.
Project Owner/s
KEFI Minerals will own 80% of the exploration and holding company for Ethiopia, KME, which, in turn, will own 56% of Tulu Kapi Gold Mines Share Company (TKGM), thus bestowing KEFI with a 45% beneficial interest in the project.
Project Description
Tulu Kapi has an ore reserve estimate of 15.4-million tonnes at 2.1 g/t gold for 1.1-million ounces of gold.
Openpit gold production is estimated at 140 000 oz/y over a seven-year mine life.
Total life-of-mine production is estimated at 980 000 oz.
The conventional openpit mining operation will include a carbon-in-leach processing plant. The mine will be connected to Ethiopia’s electricity grid through a new 47-km-long, 132 kV dedicated power line relatively close to the country’s major hydropower-generation source. An emergency diesel power plant will also be installed to provide emergency backup power for critical process equipment in the event of a grid power failure.
A preliminary economic assessment indicates the economic attractiveness of mining the underground deposit adjacent to the Tulu Kapi openpit after the startup of the openpit and after positive cashflows have begun to repay project debts.
Potential Job Creation
Not stated.
Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $207-million at an assumed long-term gold price of $1 300.
The openpit has an internal rate of return of 49%.
Capital Expenditure
The 2020 Tulu Kapi plan shows total funding needs of about $221-million.
Planned Start/End Date
The start of full gold production at Tulu Kapi is expected in 2022.
Latest Developments
Kefi Minerals has announced that it will host its annual general meeting virtually on August 13.
The meeting will discuss a name-change of the company to Kefi Gold and Copper to reinforce the company’s mission in those metals, given the discoveries that the company has made in the past year.
In the year ended December 31, 2019, the company continued to advance its Tulu Kapi gold project, in Ethiopia, and discovered a copper/zinc/silver deposit at Hawiah, in Saudi Arabia.
The company has finalised a 2020 Tulu Kapi Plan, which now has more reliable assumptions, owing to the finalisation of infrastructure design and updated cost inputs. In light of the improved gold price environment, Kefi has adopted a gold price range of between $1 400/oz and $1 800/oz for illustrative modelling purposes.
In the year under review, the company aims to finalise the Tulu Kapi funding and is still working with an Ethiopian private-sector investment company to come on board.
Late last year, Kefi selected a bank-loan-based proposal – received from Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank, and Africa Finance Corporation – as its preferred project infrastructure finance proposal.
The company remains focused on financial close of the project’s funding by October this year, and starting gold production at Tulu Kapi in 2022.
Key Contracts and Suppliers
Ausdrill (mine services).
Contact Details for Project Information
KEFI Minerals, tel +90 232 381 9431, fax +90 232 381 9071 or email info@kefi-minerals.com.