PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed gold miner Resolute Mining is hoping to turn its recently acquired Bibiani project, in Ghana, into a high-margin, long-life operation.
“To make sense for us, the project needs to be a 100 000 oz/y or more operation and have a decent mine life,” Resolute CEO John Welborn said on the sidelines of the Africa Downunder conference.
Surface operations at Bibiani were suspended in May 2013, as owner Noble Mineral Resources revised its operational strategy with the aim of producing higher-margin ounces.
Resolute completed the acquisition of the Bibiani project from Noble, which went into administration at the end of 2013, in June 2014.
A subsequent scoping study revealed an underground mining inventory of 4.3-million tonnes at 4.2 g/t of gold at a 3.25 g/t cutoff for 574 000 oz.
The scoping study estimated that about $15-million would be required for underground development and a further $15-million for plant and infrastructure upgrades.
The project had an estimated five-and-a-half-year mine life.
Welborn said on Wednesday that Resolute would undertake more drilling to build the resource inventory at Bibiani, which would assist in justifying the scale of production planned for the project.
The company was also working to improve the project financials, with Welborn saying that most of the savings would come down to optimising the orebody.
“There are a lot of ounces in the ground at Bibiani. We now need to do the work that can define a project within our paramenters and then we will make an investment decision.”