Quarterly Activities Report
Perth, Aug 1, 2014 AEST (ABN Newswire) - West African Resources Limited (
ASX:WAF) (CVE:WAF) is pleased to report activities on its 100%-owned gold and copper-gold projects in Burkina Faso, West Africa, for the quarter ending 30 June 2014.
West African announced the results of a technical and financial assessment ("Scoping Study") of a heap leach starter project on its Mankarga 5 project, Burkina Faso, on 29 July 2014. The Scoping Study evaluation, which was worked on largely during the June quarter and completed in July, was independently managed by engineering consulting firm Mintrex Pty Ltd based in Perth, Western Australia, with input from a range of specialist consultants, and was completed to +/- 35% input cost estimate.
Highlights:
Base case is stated on a pre-tax basis assuming 100% project at a gold price of $1,300/oz. All amounts are in US dollars unless otherwise stated.
- IRR of 57% with a 16 month payback on capital costs
- Free cash flow of $103 million after capital costs
- NPV5% of $84 million
- Pre-production capital of $35 million plus working capital and contingency of $9 million
- Estimated average annual gold production of 59,400 ounces for first three years
- Estimated average annual gold production of 44,100 ounces for life of mine
- Current study mine life of 5.4 years
- Life of mine strip ratio 1:1
- Cash costs of $614/oz
- All-in sustaining cash costs of $685/oz (including cash costs, royalties, refining & sustaining capital)
The release of the scoping study followed an update to the Mankarga 5 resource estimate on 14 April, with an Indicated Resource increasing by 12% (at a 0.5g/t cut-off) estimated at 10.8 million tonnes grading 1.3g/t gold containing 437,000 ounces gold and an Inferred Resource increasing by 74% (at a 0.5g/t cut-off) estimated at approximately 32.7 million tonnes grading 1.0g/t gold containing 1,050,000 ounces gold.
The Company also completed metallurgical test work during the quarter, which confirmed the carbon-in-leach (CIL) potential of the Mankarga 5 deposit, with gold recoveries of up to 98.5% and averaging 93.8% in direct cyanidation test work after 48 hours. This demonstrated that the mineralisation is non-refractory and amenable to conventional milling and CIL processing.
Exploration completed during the quarter included diamond and oxide resource definition drilling at Mankarga 5.
A breakdown of drilling for the June Quarter includes:
- Diamond: 9 holes for 1,670 m
- Auger: 3,282 holes for 16,362 m
- Aircore: 347 holes for 12,182 m
To view the full quarterly report, please visit:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-WAF-686487.pdf
About West African Resources Limited
West African Resources Limited (
ASX:WAF) (CVE:WAF) is a gold-copper exploration company dedicated to creating shareholder value through the acquisition, exploration and development of resource projects in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
West African has a landholding of 6,370sq km and 200km of strike length of early Proterozoic Birimian greenstone belts, which are highly prospective for gold mineralisation.
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