TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian project developer Asanko Gold is nearing completion of the first phase of its cornerstone Asanko gold mine, in Ghana, where it expects to produce on average 190 000 oz/y of gold from next year onwards.

The TSX- and NYSE MKT-listed company on Wednesday reported that the low-cost operation was on track to pour its first gold early in the first quarter of 2016.

The nearly $300-million project continued to advance with three-quarters of the overall project complete and about 2 400 employees and contractors on site, as at the end of August. Concrete civils, steel erection, mechanical and plate work were nearing completion and piping, and electrical and instrumentation were well under way.

“The current level of activity and energy at the project site is tremendous and we have achieved some significant milestones since our last update, including the installation of the primary crusher and the mill shells. The completion and handover of 88 new houses as part of the partial village relocation is a major achievement and one that was done in close collaboration with and support from the local community.

Overall, the project is currently on budget and tracking a few weeks ahead of the original schedule. As such, the focus is now shifting to the commissioning plan to ensure the successful start-up and ramp-up of Phase 1 operations,” president and CEO Peter Breese stated.

Procurement was now complete and the project continued to track within budget, with $180-million spent and a further $110-million committed. Asanko advised that it was fully funded until the project became cash-flow positive, with about $182-million in cash on-hand as at August 31 and a $20-million cost-overrun facility for total available funding of about $202-million.

The remaining use of funds would be $162-million, which included $139-million for the project, $18-million for working capital and $5-million for corporate costs until commercial production was achieved, which was expected in the second quarter of 2016. As such, the company continued to maintain a funding buffer of $40-million.

Meanwhile, prestripping of the Nkran pit, the main mineral resource for Phase 1, continued to advance according to schedule. The contractor reached hard rock in August, when drill and blast operations started. Mining operations were running at planned production levels of 80 000 t/d to 90 000 t/d, which was in line with the long-term, steady-state life-of-mine plan.

The mining contractor had mined 12-million tonnes from the pit as at the end of August, representing more than 60% of the planned prestrip. About 53 000 t of ore at a grade of 1.62 g/t had been mined during the prestrip and placed on the run-of-mine pad. This ore was previously categorised in the inferred category that was not included in the mine plan.

Before starting milling operations, Asanko planned to have more than 400 000 t of ore at reserve grade on the stockpiles, which was more than a month’s production requirements.

Pit dewatering also continued to advance ahead of the mining operations, with 4.6-million cubic metres of the expected six-million cubic metres of water now pumped from the Nkran pit (about 77%). The pit was expected to be empty in November. Pit dewatering boreholes were currently being drilled and would be operational as required during the fourth quarter.

Further, significant equipment, such as the crusher, semiautogenous grinding and ball mill, had been placed, while the tailings storage facility was 95% complete.

The mine was expected to have an operational dedicated power supply in November.