New Liberty pours first gold in Liberia

Aureus Mining’s 100% owned New Liberty gold project in the Republic of Liberia has successfully completed its first gold pour, according to the project schedule. The hot and cold commissioning phases of the project continue to progress as scheduled. There will be a phased ramp up in the plant feed to full design throughput levels of 95,000 t/month of ore, achieving full scale steady state commercial gold production during Q3 2015.

All civil works and steel erection at the New Liberty plant site have now been completed. Phase one of the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) penstock line has been completed which will provide sufficient storage for 18 months of operations. Work will resume on phase two after the wet season.

Commenting on the New Liberty Project’s first gold pour, David Reading, President and CEO of Aureus Mining, said: “This is a significant milestone for New Liberty, the company and the Republic of Liberia as a whole, and is a culmination of a tremendous amount of hard work by the company’s employees and contractors (DRA Mineral Projects, Group 5 and MonuRent) through what have often been difficult and adverse conditions. Aureus has taken New Liberty through feasibility, development and now into production as Liberia’s first commercial gold mine. The building of New Liberty is a credit to the whole team at Aureus, and to the crucial support given by both the local communities and the national government, without which this project would not have been possible.”

Commissioning has been fully completed on the front end comminution circuit, including both the milling and gravity circuits, with work continuing to progress on the extraction circuits including the CIL, elution and detox circuits.

The flood bund and drainage works around the Larjor pit have been completed, protecting the mining pit from water ingress during the approaching wet season.

The flood bund is currently being extended to cover the northern boundary of the Kinjor pit, whilst the Marvoe Creek diversion drain around the Kinjor pit has now been completed. This is required to ensure that mining can continue in the Kinjor pit throughout the wet season.

Work is continuing to progress on the pump installation, sumps and water diversion bunds within the pits ahead of the wet season.

Mining activities continue to advance at both the Kinjor and Larjor pits, with ore being stockpiled ready for processing.

During the construction phase at New Liberty an excellent safety performance was attained during 2014 and 2015. On 31 March the project achieved over 1,000,000 Lost Time Injury free man hours.

The DFS foresees average annual gold production of 119,000 oz over the first six years at an average grade of 3.6 g/t Au with total gold production of 859,000 oz over the eight year, open-pit, life of mine (LOM). LOM operating cash cost will average $668/oz using contract mining, a reduction of 2.5% versus the previous feasibility study.

Initial capital cost estimate was for $136 million (excluding contingency), a reduction of 2.9% versus the previous feasibility study.

Total revenue is predicted at $1.2 billion and pre-tax cash flow of $353 million using a flat gold price of $1,400/oz. Pre-tax NPV of $166 million and an IRR of 23% at a flat gold price of $1,300/oz.

Proven and Probable reserve of 8.5 Mt at 3.4 g/t Au for 924,000 oz of contained gold.