Golden Star Resources Ltd. has announced that it has received a mining lease for the Mampong deposit in Ghana.
Mampong is a high grade, oxide deposit containing 45,000 ounces of gold (304 kilotonnes (Kt) at 4.60 grams per tonne (g/t)), approximately 80 kilometres to the north of the Company’s carbon-in-leach processing plant at the Bogoso site. There is an existing, good quality road connecting the deposit and the processing plant for the majority of the distance, so limited capital expenditures will be required in order to bring Mampong into production.
Higher grade ore from Mampong will be blended with ore from the Prestea Open Pits, which is expected to enhance Golden Star’s cash flow in 2017. Following the receipt of the mining lease, the next step for the Company is to obtain an environmental permit. Golden Star expects to start mining Mampong in the first half of 2017.
Golden Star began mining the Prestea Open Pits in the third-quarter of 2015 to bridge the gap between the Bogoso refractory operations ceasing production and the commencement of production from the high grade Prestea Underground Gold Mine, which is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2017. The Company had anticipated that production from the Prestea Open Pits would be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2016 but production is now forecast to continue until the second half of 2017. Golden Star will also endeavour to delineate additional Mineral Reserves in the area in order to further extend production from the Prestea Open Pits and maintain a second ore source from the mine.
Although Golden Star has not yet published formal guidance for 2017, production from the Prestea Open Pits, including the Mampon deposit, was not included in Golden Star’s production profile in the Company’s recent presentation. Therefore, any production generated from these surface deposits in 2017 represents upside on the Company’s current production profile.
Sam Coetzer, Golden Star’s President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “I am very pleased that Golden Star has been granted the mining lease for Mampong. Through mining this high grade surface deposit we will generate strong short-term cash flow and it will assist us in maintaining production from Prestea until Prestea Underground commences production in the second quarter of 2017. With exceptionally high grade Mineral Reserves at 14.02g/t, the real prize at Prestea is the underground mine, but the Prestea Open Pits have provided and will continue to provide useful cash flow to us during this transition period and I am very glad that, along with Mampong, they will now continue to produce until at least the second half of 2017.”
Golden Star is an established gold mining company that owns and operates the Wassa and Prestea mines situated on the prolific Ashanti Gold Belt in western Ghana, Africa. Listed on the NYSE MKT, the TSX, and the GSE, Golden Star is strategically focused on increasing operating margins and cash flow through the development of two high grade, low cost underground mines both in conjunction with existing open pit operations. The Wassa Underground commenced pre-commercial production in mid-2016 and the Prestea Underground is expected to commence production in mid-2017. Both projects are fully funded and on track to begin production as expected. Production in 2016 is expected to be between 180,000–205,000 ounces of gold with costs of US$815-US$925 per ounce.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
