JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Kefi Minerals has reworked the production plans at its Tulu Kapi gold project, in Ethiopia, with production estimated to expand from 115 000 oz/y to 145 000 oz/y.
The latest estimates take into consideration the impact of the planned finance structure, reflecting the specifics of the heads of terms signed with infrastructure specialist Oryx in July.
Oryx committed to finding $135-million in funding through bonds to be put into a special purpose vehicle, on the assumption that the project could be more loaded to the front-end.
Kefi plans to expand the capacity of the project’s processing plant to between 1.9-million and 2.1-million tonnes a year, depending on the hardness of the ore.
The additional cost of this will be offset by other savings and by an offer from Oryx to expand the facility on offer.
"The Tulu Kapi gold project consortium is implementing its finance closing procedures and the refined financial projections reflect recently resolved expansion plans,” chairperson Harry Anagnostaras-Adams said in a statement on Monday.
The company also expects to refine the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract into a hybrid EPC and EPC management contract, whereby the client has the protection of certain performance guarantees, along with the transparency of open-book access to all costs, along with tighter alignment with owner-management through incentivised target schedules and costs for the contractor.
All-in sustaining cost estimates remain relatively unchanged at $800/oz, despite the faster-track mining and processing, because of an assumption of higher unit costs for mining.
Net operating cash flow for the first three years increased to $74-million a year from $62-million a year.