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(Kitco News) - KEFI Gold and Copper (AIM: KEFI) today announced positive results of the pre-feasibility study (PFS) for Hawiah, the largest discovery to date by KEFI’s 27%-owned Saudi Arabian joint-venture Gold and Minerals Company Limited.
In a statement, the company said that the PFS on the Hawiah open-pit and associated studies on the underground mine have provided a “positive foundation” for the optimization and development of Hawiah.
According to the PFS findings, the project’s NPV8% is US$301 million and post-tax IRR is 75%, based on mining current indicated and inferred resources, with life of mine revenue of US$2.7 billion, operating cashflow of US$1.1 billion and pre-production capital expenditure of US$295 million.
These estimates are based on spot gold prices as at 30 April 2023 and an assumed mining rate starting at 2 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) and peaking at 3 Mtpa over 10 years. It is envisaged that initial open pit mining will be followed by, and complemented by, underground mining.
Hawiah is a part of a larger mineralized system and the January 2023 mineral resource estimate contains a total of 258,000 tonnes (569 million lbs) of copper, 272,000 tonnes (600 million lbs) of zinc, 620,000 ounces of gold and 9.4 million ounces of silver.
Executive Chairman Harry Anagnostaras-Adams said, “The PFS demonstrates an attractive project at Hawiah. To date we have only tested a small part of the Hawiah district and we already have a project that can be optimized for development. The definitive feasibility study will in due course refine and optimize the entire Hawiah Complex.”
KEFI is focused primarily on the development of the Tulu Kapi gold project in Ethiopia and its pipeline of highly prospective exploration and development projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, also in the Arabian-Nubian Shield.
KEFI targets that Tulu Kapi gold, along with its two most advanced Saudi projects Jibal Qutman gold and Hawiah copper-gold will come into production over the period 2025- 2027 and will generate cash flows for capital repayments, further exploration and dividends to shareholders.
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