PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior gold developer Bassari Resources has identified potential cost reductions in capital and operating expenditure at its Makabingui gold project, in Senegal.
The company reported on Wednesday that it had identified significant improvements to the project’s process flow sheet, and had earmarked a possible A$800 000 capital saving by including crushing as part of the mining contract.
Cost improvements were further identified by locating the primary and secondary crushing facilities at the mining area on the run-of-mine pad, with the crushers to be procured as off-the-shelf mobile units, further saving on cash costs.
Furthermore, the existing wet scrubber currently installed at the plant would be removed from the processing plant, as the existing double deck screen was considered adequate, further reducing the expected maintenance costs and power and water requirements.
A feasibility study into the Makabingui project had estimated a capital cost of some $12-million to allow for the mining of about 171 000 oz of gold.
The study indicated that the 11.9-million-tonne resource, grading 2.6 g/t gold, could deliver 50 000 oz/y of gold over a three-and-a-half-year mine life.
The study was based on a 300 000 t/y hard-rock operation, with ore initially sourced from four high-grade openpit mines.