Roxgold Inc has announced the results of the Feasibility Study and Mineral Reserve estimate for the high-grade Séguéla Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire which it says confirms robust economics for the development of an open-pit mining operation at Séguéla, targeting a series of open-pit mines at Antenna, Koula, Ancien, Agouti and Boulder deposits that will feed a central gold processing facility. Roxgold intends to make a formal construction decision upon completion of a debt financing package and signed mining convention with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire.
The Feasibility Study considers an operation with an initial nameplate of 1.25 Mt/y and mine life of 9 years with a LOM after-tax net cash flow of $536 million at a gold price of $1,600/oz. Average annual gold production of 133,000 oz over the first six years of production, with an estimated production peak of 151,000 oz in year four. LOM gold production will be 1.03 Moz of gold. Processing plant throughput rate will be expanded by approximately 25% to 1.57 Mt/y in year three, through a series of optimisation and debottlenecking measures with minimal capital requirements.
The Séguéla Gold Project is located approximately 240 km north-west of Yamoussoukro, the political capital of Côte d’Ivoire, and approximately 480 km north-west of Abidjan, the commercial capital of the country. The Séguéla property covers an area of 35,360 ha, defined by two exploration permits. The property is generally accessible year-round by road. Bituminised national highways facilitate transport between Abidjan, Yamoussoukro, and the town of Séguéla (population 65,000) which is the nearest major town to the property. The project is accessible from the town of Séguéla via approximately 40 km of unsealed road.
Two 200 t excavators, complimented with one 120 t and one 80 t excavator in the latter stages of the satellite pits, with an estimated total material productive capacity of approximately 25 Mt/y, will have sufficient capacity to allow for maintenance, transport between the pits, and make-up capacity to account for low productivity periods such as high rainfall events. A fleet of up to 20 Caterpillar 777 100 ton trucks will be used in conjunction with several smaller articulated trucks for the latter stages of the satellite pits to truck and haul all mineralised and waste material. Roxgold will engage a mining contractor for initial operations, before switching to an owner mining arrangement after 3.5 years. A common pool of equipment will be used and scheduled across all active pits so that movement between the pits is minimised.
Run of Mine mineralised material will be trucked from the pit to the ROM pad and dumped either onto the ROM pad to be reclaimed and loaded to the ROM bin or by direct tipping. The Feasibility Study contemplates a single stage primary crush/SAG milling comminution circuit where the mineralised material will be drawn from the ROM bin via an apron feeder, scalped via a vibrating grizzly with the undersize reporting directly to the discharge conveyor and the oversize reporting to a primary jaw crusher for further size reduction. All crushed and scalped material will be conveyed to a surge bin. Crushed mineralised material and water will be fed to the mill. The Séguéla process plant design is based on a metallurgical flowsheet envisioned for the production of gold doré at optimum recovery while minimising initial capital expenditure and operating costs. The flowsheet comprises of conventional crushing, milling, gravity recovery, a carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit, carbon elution and a gold recovery circuit.
