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June 2017
MODERN MINING
41
WEST AFRICA
feature
A
SX-listed Bassari Resources, which
has a portfolio of exploration permits
in south-eastern Senegal, has recently
provided an update on its Makabingui gold
project. It says in the update that the compa-
ny and its JV partner have been authorised by
Senegal’s Minister of Mines to incorporate the
exploitation company which will develop the
project and to commence the pre-development
stage of mining operations.
The pre-development stage will include
infrastructure work such as the rehabilitation of
roads, upgrade of the camp, fencing of the min-
ing area, concreting to expand the plant area for
the processing plant upgrade (there is an exist-
ing gravity plant on site) and dam reparation.
The Minister of Mines has also allocated
a corridor of 20 km
2
(outside the Makabingui
exploitation permit) for local villagers to recom-
mence artisanal mining. Bassari will work with
villagers and Department of Mining personnel,
providing a geologist and technicians to locate
gold anomalies in the proposed corridor.
The Makabingui project currently hosts a
Bassari
to start early work at Makabingui
mineral resource which comprises 11,9 Mt
averaging 2,6 g/t gold for a contained 1 mil-
lion ounces classified into the indicated and
inferred resource categories.
Phase 1 of mine development will see
Bassari mining four high-grade pits within the
resource, with the biggest being Pit 1 which
hosts around 460 kt at 7,5 g/t gold. The open-
pit project will produce an estimated 171 000
ounces at a C1 cash cost of US$683/oz over a
period of just over three years. The capital costs
for the open-pit stage of mining are very low,
totalling approximately US$12 million. US$5,5
million of this will be required to upgrade the
existing plant to incorporate a CIL circuit.
Payback is estimated within 12 months of the
start of production.
This initial phase of operations will be
extended to mine deeper resources by open-
pit or underground methods. Bassari has
already completed an underground scoping
study which has provided an assessment of the
potential for mining the deeper resources from
access declines within the pits.