British Miner Amara Mining has disclosed that it will invest $400 million over the next two years to build a mine Yaoure which holds Ivory Coasts’s largest Gold Deposit. The Mine, which has a planned production date of 2017, is projected to be one of Africa’s largest gold mines.
The company’s CEO John McGloin, said resources at the site have been evaluated at 6.3 million ounces and that his company expects to produce an average of 325,000 ounces per year. “With this level of output we’ll be in the top 10 of the largest mines in Africa and the largest in Ivory Coast,” he said.
Although the mine has a projected lifespan of 12 years, McGloin said the London-listed company, which has already spent around $24 million on exploration at the site, hopes that further drilling will lead to discoveries that could prolong the mine’s life to around 20 years.
“It’s a mine that will have a low cost of production. Even if the price per ounce falls to around $1,000, the project will still be profitable for us,” he said, Reuters reports that Spot gold is trading at around $1,217 an ounce.
McGloin revealed that construction will begin in 2016 and will be financed by the company, private investors, banks and through market fundraising. But the company had to suspend its Baomahun project in Sierra Leone due to the Ebola outbreak in the country. Amara owns three early-stage exploration licences in Liberia: Cestos, Kle Kle and Zwedru. Cestos is the most advanced of the three, with encouraging results received from drilling and trenching.
Ivory Coast, French West Africa’s largest economy and world leading exporter of Cocoa, is seeking to grow its long-neglected mining sector in a bid to diversify the economy following a decade of political turmoil that ended in a brief 2011 civil war.
The political unrest of 2011 had also caused Amara, then Cluff Gold, to suspend its mining operations in the country.
Since the return to stability, Ivory Coast’s gold production has been rapidly rising, from 8.9 tonnes a decade ago to 15.5 tonnes last year. It is set to reach 17 tonnes this year and expected to jump to 22 tonnes by 2016.
