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June 2016
MODERN MINING
39
WEST AFRICA
feature
A
s the company’s only rev-
enue-generator, Edikan – a
multi-pit operation – will
remain the backbone of
Perseus for the immedi-
ate future. The mine, which produced
212 000 ounces in the year ended 30 June
2015, has ore reserves of 2,27 Moz and
Perseus is projecting an average produc-
tion of 222 000 oz/a at an all-in sustain-
ing cost (AISC) of US$865/oz for the re-
mainder of its mine life of 7,5 years.
During the first quarter of this year,
mining activities took place in Stage 3 –
the final stage – of the Fobinso pit and
Stage 1 of the Fetish and Chirawewa pits.
A total of 37 150 oz of gold was produced
during the quarter by processing 1,66 Mt
of ore grading on average 0,85 g/t. This
was 15 % greater than in the prior period,
reflecting an 8,4 % decrease in tonnes of ore
processed offset by a 25 % increase in the head
grade of ore treated and a 1 % improvement in
recovery. Later this year (in the December quar-
ter), Perseus expects to start mining the 475 koz
Esuajah North deposit.
Perseus’s second operating mine will almost
certainly be Sissingué (formerly known as the
Tengrela gold project) in Côte d’Ivoire. It is
located 620 km north of the commercial capital,
Abidjan, in the far north of the country close
to the border with Mali. A US$3,7 million pro-
gramme of early works, including a material
part of the front end engineering and design
(FEED) programme, construction of site access
roads, and initial earthworks, was initiated last
year and has now been completed.
According to Perseus, it will be commit-
ting to the full-scale development of Sissingué
as soon as financing arrangements are final-
ised, which is expected shortly, with first gold
Perseus poised
to emerge as
a major West African player
The Edikan gold mine in
Ghana is currently Perseus’s
only operating mine (photo:
Perseus).
With its recent acquisition of Amara Mining, Perseus Mining, headquartered in Perth, Australia and
listed on the ASX and TSX, now has a strong growth pipeline in place in West Africa. The company,
which was already the owner of the Edikan gold mine in southern Ghana, a plus 200 000 ounce-a-
year producer, and the development-ready Sissingué gold project in Côte d’Ivoire, now also controls
the advanced 5,2 Moz Yaouré gold project in Côte d’Ivoire as a result of the Amara acquisition, as well
as the Baomahun gold project in Sierra Leone.
production likely in 2017. The total upfront
capital cost will be approximately US$100
million. The aim is to fund the project devel-
opment through a combination of Perseus’s
existing cash resources, term bank debt and
mezzanine debt.
Sissingué – which has ore reserves of 5,5 Mt
at 2,4 g/t containing 0,43 Moz of gold – will be
a much smaller mine than Edikan. A straight-
forward open-pit operation, it will have an
average annual production of 75 000 ounces at
a life-of-mine all-in site cost of US$632/oz. The
processing rate of the plant will be 1,2 Mt/a for
oxides and 1,0 Mt/a for fresh ore. The process
flowsheet will include single stage crushing,
single stage grinding with a pebble crusher, a
gravity circuit, six stages of carbon in leach (CIL),
and elution and electrowinning. An overall gold
recovery of 90 % is expected for fresh ore.
Perseus’s third operating mine is likely to be
Yaouré, which was clearly the primary target