Andrew Pardey
Rainmakers & Potstirrers

Andrew Pardey

MD: Predictive Discovery

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‘You don’t want someone saying: “We’ve taken this over and paid nothing for it’’'

ANDREW Pardey’s Bankan gold project in Guinea’s prolific Siguiri Basin has a five million ounce resource so promising that Australia’s Perseus Mining bought a 19.9% stake in it. Unfortunately, some of the resources are in Guinea’s National Park of Upper Niger in a zone currently prohibited to mining. That proved crucial to the granting of an environmental licence in mid-January in which Predictive Discovery agreed not to mine the part of the resource in the buffer zone. It is a necessary compromise for a project that carries significant political goodwill (and you can’t always say that). 

Guinea’s President General Mamady Doumbouya’s view is he would like the country to follow up its $20bn Simandou iron ore mining project with a major gold discovery. Predictive’s Bankan could tick that box. At a life of mine (11 years) total cost of $1,130 per ounce, Bankan is shaping up to be a tier one asset. Pardey is keen to extract every ounce of potential from the project. Commenting before Perseus bought its strategic stake, Pardey told Miningmx he wanted to make sure a potential buyer of the company paid for everything. Currently, Bankan’s production is set at 269,000oz/yr with more to come if additional resources underground can be proven.

 About half of some A$50m in a capital raise last year was ploughed into exploration. Predictive Discovery is working on a definitive feasibility study, but an initial estimate forecasts pre-production capital of $456m. With the environmental permitting now approved, Predictive is waiting on an exploitation licence with first production set to be in 2028 after a six-month ramp-up.

LIFE OF ANDREW

Pardey is a Guinea specialist, having been involved in its Siguiri gold basin with two other companies previously. But his claim to fame was AngloGold Ashanti takeover target Centamin, helping to develop the Egyptian firm’s 470,000oz/yr Sukari gold mine. As you would expect of the Sukari discovery, and Bankan, Pardey is a geologist by trade. In addition to Centamin and Predictive Maintenance, he is also a non-executive director of Wia Gold, which is developing the Kokoseb gold prospect in Namibia with former Centamin chairperson Josef El-Raghy.

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