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June 2015
MODERN MINING
37
MINING IN AFRICA
feature
The Yaoure project site
in Côte d’Ivoire. Yaoure is
owned by London-listed
Amara Mining, which claims
that the deposit is the
largest gold development
project in West Africa. As can
be seen here, the deposit
has been mined in the past
(photo: Amara Mining).
is already well advanced with construction of
the 3 Mt/a, US$295 million Phase 1 Obotan
project, with the first gold expected in the first
quarter of 2016. Phase 1 will deliver 190 000
ounces of gold a year but the Phase 2 (Esaase)
project will more than double this to a total pro-
duction of 411 000 ounces a year.
While most of the mines developed in
Ghana in recent years have been open-pit oper-
ations, the country does have a long tradition
of underground mining. One company which
is planning new underground operations is
Golden Star Resources (GSR), whose CEO is a
South African-trained mining engineer, Sam
Coetzer. Listed on the NYSE and TSX, GSR
owns the Wassa, Prestea (inactive at present)
and Bogoso mines in Ghana and in 2014 pro-
duced 261 000 ounces of gold from Wassa and
Bogoso.
Wassa
is currently an open-pit mine but its
operations are to be supplemented by an under-
ground operation. This is costing a modest
US$39 million to develop with first production
expected early next year and commercial pro-
duction in July 2016. Production will continue
through to 2024. At steady state production, the
Wassa underground mine is expected to pro-
duce an average of approximately 2 000 tonnes
per day and will allow the combined Wassa
open-pit and underground operations to pro-
duce an average of 163 000 ounces a year over
the life of mine.
GSR is also working at bringing the more
than 100-year-old
Prestea
mine back into
production, with a start already having been
made on the rehabilitation. The PEA on this
project contemplates a 500 tonnes per day (tpd)
underground mining operation extracting high
grade ore from the West Reef section of Prestea
underground. High grade ore will be trans-
ported along the existing dedicated haul road to
the Bogoso plant and a new 500 tpd gravity-CIL
plant will process the material. Initial capital
costs of the development were estimated in the
PEA at US$41 million.
Prestea underground will have a five-and-a-
half year life during which 649 000 tonnes of
ore at 17,2 g/t will be mined. Mining operations
should start next year with a peak gold produc-
tion of 91 000 ounces being achieved in 2018.
Another long-lived Ghanaian mine which
could get a new lease of life is
Bibiani
, which
has produced more than 4 Moz of gold since
mining operations first began in the early 1900s.
Although it has historic underground workings
to 800 m depth, it has been mined by open-pit
methods in recent years and has a 3,4 Mt/a
CIL plant in place. Last year Resolute Mining
acquired the mine – by then under care and
maintenance – from Noble Mineral Resources
and is planning to reopen it as an underground
operation. A feasibility on the underground
mine is currently in progress.
Côte d’Ivoire – the new gold frontier
In Ghana’s immediate neighbour to the west,
Côte d’Ivoire, which is sometimes described
as West Africa’s new gold frontier, the mining