Recent drilling results from Azumah gave the Director General Stephen Stone further encourage the company accelerates the work on the feasibility study on the Wa Gold Project in Ghana. There are currently just over 754,000 ounces reserved Wa from two deposits on the permit Wa – Kunchi and Bepkong. But the company has recently been the drilling of two new prospects called Colette and Julia, and among the best results were intersections of four meters at 17.58 grams of gold per tonne and 17 meters at 4.38 grams per tonne . “These recent results confirm what we always said it’s early days, but the Wa Gold Project has several million ounces of resource potential,” Azumah CEO Stephen Stone said mine. A maiden JORC resource for Julie is expected by the end of this month.
“Our main objective is to delineate a critical mass of resources to support a decision to develop the mine and get the mine up and running,” he added. The ASX-listed company intends to do the feasibility study completed by the end of this year and put the mine into production by the end of 2011. The open pit mine, the duration of mining more than seven years, will begin producing up to 70,000 ounces per year and will soon be upgraded to 100,000 ounces, “said Stone.
To Azumah, Wa has the potential long-term, with 3,100 square kilometers of land tenure to explore. “Once we are running is a long-term operation, the holding ground and the region in general are very promising,” says Peter. “At our inception, we have not need to acquire new land, what we have is excellent and yet largely under-explored, “he added.
The exploration company based in Perth has already made preliminary optimizations and pit designs for both resources and key Kunch Bepkong. Focus now is on high-grade mineralization shallow to ensure that operating costs remain in the United States is between $ 450 and $ 480 U.S. per ounce, “said Stone. “We are not trying to dissect all the deep resources, which we believe will be there, and underground mining is not on our radar at all at this early stage,” he added.
The Ghana has long been a hub of choice for minors, and in recent years the juniors have been flocking to join the major gold producers such as AngloGold Ashanti, Newmont and Gold Fields. “Ghana has many favorable attributes, he is rated low risk country that is crucial for bank funding and new resource projects, and has a clean bill to fund projects,” said Stone.
While the project is close to good, Azumah should mobilize around U.S. $ 60 million to bring the mine into production. The money will probably be home via a combination of equity and debt, said Stone Mine.
Raising money through equity financing new should not be too embarrassing if it can get its message across. “At company level we are trading at a discount to other companies on an enterprise value for each ounce,” said Stone. “It’s an opportunity Azumah very interesting investment for those who want a exposure to an emerging gold from West Africa focusing on Junior.
Part Azumah are currently priced at $ 0.225 per share on the Australian Stock Exchange. But when the company approaches the construction of a mine, the hope is that a re-rating will occur.
And while many exploration companies have struggled to keep their heads above water during the global financial crisis, Azumah has come out relatively unscathed. “We had to close temporarily until the market was open to new money. It’s only a matter of not more than two quarters, “said Pierre, also noting that the company has received interest from major investment.
The price of gold has consolidated around $ 1,100 per ounce recently, but as far as Strone is concerned, the gold price has some way to do this year. “I am very optimistic about the gold price. There is much more upside than downside to all sorts of reasons, “he said. “I do not see the supply of gold increased sharply and there are some commentators who claim that production could fall,” he added.
From now until 2011, it will be a time of rapid development for Azumah. Next on the agenda is the completion of environmental and social impact assessment, which the company needs to obtain a mining permit. Once achieved, the construction it will steam ahead – to raise funds.
source:minesite
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