(Kitco News) - On Monday, Robex Resources (TSXV:RBX) announced positive pre-feasibility study (PFS) results for the Kiniero gold project located in Republic of Guinea, West Africa.
The company said that the PFS confirms good economics for the re-development of the open-pit operations at Kiniero, targeting a series of 5 deposits for a total of 13 ore bodies that will feed a central gold processing facility.
According to the company’s statement, based on a gold price of $1,650/oz, the pre-tax net present value (“NPV”) with a 5% discount rate (NPV5%) is $199 million while the NPV5% post-tax amounts to $114 million, whereas the internal rate of return (IRR) is expected to be 49% on a pre-tax basis and 31% on a post-tax basis.
Payback period on a pre-tax basis is expected to be c. 3.0 years at a gold price of $1,650/oz while payback period on a post-tax basis is expected to stand at 3.5 years.
The project’s mine life is 6.5 years, with total gold production of 712 koz and average annual production of 110 koz. Average all-in sustaining cost is $1,033 per oz. Kiniero has Proven & Probable Reserves of 803 koz, Measured & Indicated Resources (inclusive of Reserves) of 1,280 koz, and Inferred Resources of 1,400 koz.
Mining activities at Kiniero will utilise conventional open-pit mining methods. Ore from the Kiniero gold project will be processed on-site. The gold will be recovered in a beneficiation 3Mtpa plant that has been designed to process a blend of oxide, laterite, transition, and fresh ores from various ore deposits within the field.
CEO Benjamin Cohen stated, “The new Robex team has completed a major step in de-risking Kiniero, demonstrating a robust starter project with attractive economics. We have demonstrated 1.28 Moz of M&I and 1.4 Moz of Inferred of current resources and significant near-term exploration upside. We believe this will allow us to quickly increase the life of mine and the value of the project.
“With this PFS we will continue our discussions with the financiers to accelerate investments by end-2022. This would help us to move towards our target of first pour in Q1 2024”.
Kiniero is located in eastern Guinea in the Kouroussa Prefecture. It is situated approximately 27km southeast of the town of Kouroussa, 55km west northwest of the provincial centre of Kankan and a distance 546km from Conakry, the capital of Guinea. The project is located 422km from Bamako, the capital of Mali.
The historical Kiniero gold mine comprised an open pit mining operation which produced a total of 418,000 ounces of gold during its 12-year operational history. The mine was placed on care-and-maintenance in early 2014 with the mining and exploration licences revoked in 2014.
Robex is now considering restarting the Kiniero gold mine as a long-life open pit mining operation based on constructing a new 3Mtpa process plant. An extensive drilling programme is on-going on the numerous identified deposits to increase the resource base and extend the life of mine at Kiniero predominately through extending the drilling density at depth and along known strike extensions.
Robex Resources is a TSX-V listed Canadian mining company with exploration properties in Mali and an operating mine. Robex is now striving to grow in West Africa by acquiring and/or developing new mines.
