Name and Location
Karouni gold project, Guyana.

Client
Troy Resources.

Project Description
A prefeasibility study (PFS) completed on the Karouni project’s Smarts and Hicks deposits considers a combination of two opencut mines feeding a conventional carbon-in-leach gold plant.

The study considers only reserves that can be mined by opencut and these total 2.62-million tonnes grading 3.8 g/t of gold.

The initial mining fleet will comprise two excavators and up to eight trucks. Initial production will predominantly be sourced from Hicks while Smarts overburden is removed. An additional fleet will be mobilised three months after the start of mining to provide further capacity for the Smarts operation.

Production will then focus on the higher-grade Smarts deposit. Mining will progress using three excavator fleets until the pits are complete.

Mining will be carried out on 2.5 m flitches over a 5-m-high blast. Initial sand overburden removal will be free dig, with no blasting required.

The processing plant will have a nominal throughput of one-million tonnes a year. Ore will be fed through a primary jaw crusher to a secondary cone crusher. Crushed material will be fed to a 3.2 MW ball mill for grinding with material passing through a gravity circuit to recover coarse gold before the addition of cyanide. After the gold is dissolved in the leach circuit, it is collected on active carbon, which is then passed to an elution circuit, based on a modified Zadra stripping system, where the final product is smelted to produce gold doré bars.

The doré will be flown to the Guyana capital, Georgetown, for export to a refinery. Waste tailings will be pumped to a tailings facility.

The PFS assumes that 2.61-million tonnes of material, with an average grade of 3.84 g/t gold, will be processed, with recovered gold production of 303 526 oz over a three-year mine life.

The Smarts pit is expected to produce 1.77-million tonnes of plant feed at 4.70 g/t of gold, have a mining strip ratio of 9.6:1 and to be mined to a depth of 120 m.

The Hicks pit is expected to produce 840 000 t of plant feed at 2.02 g/t of gold, have a mining strip ratio of 4.6:1 and to be mined to a maximum depth of 80 m.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an after-tax net present value at 6% of $72-million, an after-tax internal rate of return of 50.2% and a payback period of 1.2 years.

Value
$84.6-million.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Troy Resources has moved a step closer to production at its Karouni gold project after signing a minerals agreement with the state government.

The minerals agreement details the fiscal, property, import/export procedures, taxation and other conditions for the development and operation of Karouni.

The agreement includes a 5% royalty at a gold price of less than $1 000/oz, and a royalty of 8% on a gold price higher than $1 000/oz.

The corporate tax rate will be the lesser of the prevailing tax rate or 30%, while the agreement also covers Troy’s ability to import goods and supplies free of applicable duties and taxes. Further, the agreement includes a partial excise tax of 10% on fuel, subject to a maximum cap of 10 c/l, the exemption from capital gains tax on any transfers of controlling interests in mineral tenements between existing registered holders, and the ability to remit all payments without the obligation to pay any fees.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Troy Resources, tel +61 8 9481 1277 or fax +61 8 9321 8237.