CENTAMIN, the UK-listed gold miner, will lodge an application to mine Doropo, its proposed $373m project in Ivory Coast following completion of a definitive feasibility study (DFS).
The study confirmed and improved on an earlier assessment with updated production forecast to be 207,000 ounces per year over the mine’s first five years, and an average of 167,000 oz/year over its 10-year life of mine. This assessments are based on a mineral reserve estimate of 1.88 million oz.
Martin Horgan, CEO of Centamin said in an announcement on Thursday that financing options for the project were “well advanced”.
Centamin targeted gold production of 470,000 to 500,000 oz for this financial year from Sukari, a mine in Egypt. This was after achieving last year’s production guidance at an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $1,220/oz – $30/oz better than guidance.
Doropo, however, is forecast to produce gold at an average AISC of $971/oz for the first five years assuming a $1,900/oz gold price. The gold price is currently trading at $2,461/oz after earlier this week registering a new all-time record.
Another critical (often under-estimated) finding of the DFS was a reduction in expected community relocations from 3,000 to 4,000 people in the pre-feasibility study to less than 500 people, helping to lower the project’s execution risk. The project already has its environmental approvals.
The development of Doropo helps lowers Centamin’s risk profile. In addition to comfortably taking Centamin to a 500,000 oz/year plus operator, it helps meet investor preferences for revenue from diverse geographies.
Ivory Coast has become something of an outlier in West Africa following military coups in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali (two). The three country’s have formed the Alliance of Sahel States, severing ties with the regional bloc ECOWAS.
Earlier this week Burkina Faso accused Ivory Coast of working to destabilise the country, but news service AFP quoted a spokesman for the ruling RHDP as saying the Ivorian government had put a system in place to “welcome all these brothers and sisters who have real difficulties living in their country, and who find Ivory Coast a refuge”.
