TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – West Africa-focused project developer Asanko Gold has awarded the mining contract for the fully funded and permitted $295-million first phase of the Asanko gold mine, in Ghana.

Project construction started in August and had been advancing rapidly with the project on schedule and within budget. Phase 1 was expected to produce 200 000 oz/y of gold at a steady state, starting from the second quarter of 2016, with the first gold pour planned for the first quarter of that year.

The main mineral resource for Phase 1 is the Nkran pit, immediately next to the new plant site currently under construction. The pit was previously mined to a depth of about 120 m and required 21.7-million tonnes of waste to be prestripped before ore mining could start by the end of next year.

Asanko reported on Wednesday that it had awarded the mining contract for the Nkran prestrip and the first year of mining operations to PW Ghana, a subsidiary of PW Mining International of Accra, after a rigorous tendering process.

PW’s extensive experience in West Africa and a full fleet of equipment in excellent condition that could be immediately deployed to the project site counted in its favour. Prestripping was expected to start in January, with mobilisation, clearing and grubbing starting immediately.

The process of finding a mining contractor started in May, when Asanko invited 19 mining contract companies to tender. From these initial submissions, it was determined that a shortlist of seven companies had the capability to meet the project timelines and quantities. In July, these shortlisted companies were invited to provide a more detailed tender. Four of the tenders submitted were selected for a detailed technical and commercial review.

An independent quantity-survey company was then used to provide the commercial adjudication and a panel of Asanko's Ghanaian mining team conducted technical adjudications. In the adjudication process, the bids were evaluated based on the contractor's observed expertise and performance in safety, training, equipment availability, maintenance and operating excellence.

Asanko also gave significant weighting to local ownership of the tendering companies, in keeping with the mandate of the African Union’s Mining Vision.