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January 2017
MODERN MINING
47
Top projects
of Africa’s great gold
mines
GOLD
Above:
View of the Esaase
site, which is located 25 km
to the north of Nkran.
Below:
Asanko Gold Mine is
the first in Ghana to utilise
a slope stability radar (SSR).
It has been supplied by
GroundProbe.
the year and we are now running well ahead of
nameplate capacity – in fact, the mills are run-
ning at over 10 000 tonnes per day, which is
20 % above design. It’s really been a fantastic
startup for Asanko.”
He adds that the mine is expected to produce
between 230 000 and 240 000 ounces in 2017
at an All In Sustaining Cost (AISC) of between
US$810/oz and US$840/oz, with the ore being
derived from the main Nkran pit, which will
be the source of 80 % of Phase 1’s ore, and also
the new Dynamite Hill satellite pit, 7 km to the
north of Nkran.
Asanko was built in just 17 months with
the EPCM contractor being DRA (with Redis
Construction Afrika as the SMP contractor)
and is the first new gold mine to have been
brought on line in Ghana since Akyem, owned
by Newmont, was commissioned in 2013. Most
of Ghana’s gold mines are located on either the
Ashanti or Sefwi gold belts but Asanko is on
the smaller Asankrangwa belt, which histori-
cally has tended to be neglected by exploration
companies. Asanko Gold’s two main assets
on the belt are Nkran (formerly known
as Obotan) and Esaase, 25 km to the north.
The history of how these two properties
came to be part of Asanko Gold, which is
listed on the TSX and NYSE MKT, is a story
in itself but suffice it to say that the new mine
is the brainchild of well-known mining entre-
preneurs Peter Breese and Colin Steyn (both