Essakan

The Essakan Project is located 330km north east of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Capital costs have been estimated at US$346.5 million to build a 5.4 million tonnes per annum carbon in leach plant that will produce an average of 292,000 ounces of gold per year at an average cash cost of US$298 per ounce over an 8.6 year mine life.

The probable mineral reserves associated with this surface mine design are 46.4Mt with a diluted (mill feed) grade of 1.78g/t. The mineral reserves are based on cutoff grades of 0.52g/t for saprolite, 0.58g/t for sap rock, and 0.62g/t for fresh ores.

The average metallurgical recovery over the life of mine is estimated to be 94.6%. The annual gold production is anticipated to be 292,000 oz and the pre-tax internal rate of return is 18.8% based on a gold price of US$650/oz