AIM-listed Chaarat has issued an update on its Tulkubash oxide gold deposit in the Kyrgyz Republic, saying mining contractor Çiftay Inşaat has started deploying equipment to site.

A notice to proceed was issued to the contractor on August 31, with initial activities acting as a pre-cursor to full-scale construction at the heap leach project in 2019.

A feasibility study from April indicated a 95,200 oz/y mine operating at an all-in sustaining cost of $831/oz could be built for $132 million of upfront capital. This was based on a 500,000 oz reserve comprising 16 Mt at 0.91 g/t Au and 1.13 g/t Ag. First gold is expected at the end of 2020.

Ҫiftay’s initial operations at Tulkubash will focus on building a temporary 50-person camp for the initial construction forces, partial construction of a permanent camp housing 200 personnel (to be expanded to 360 personnel next year), establishing a temporary maintenance shop, installing a 5 km haul road between the mine and process facilities, building the Kumbel pass-to-site portion of the access road and initial clearing, and grubbing of the heap leach pad area.

These activities are expected to lead to full-scale construction of the Tulkubash heap leach project in the June quarter of 2019, Chaarat said, noting basic engineering for the process plant was already complete and detailed engineering was in progress.

“The heap leach facility design is being finalised and the application for Kyrgyz regulatory approval of the design is being compiled,” the company said.

Chaarat plans to use its own project management team alongside strategic engineering support to form the project delivery team.