The Ghanaian parliament has given its formal consent to the redevelopment of the Obuasi Gold Mine, owned 100% by AngloGold Ashanti in Ghana’s Ashanti Region.
Image: A gold rock. Photo: courtesy of PHGCOM/Wikipedia.org.
According to AngloGold Ashanti, the parliament has ratified the regulatory and fiscal agreements covering the redevelopment of the gold mine into a modern, productive mining operation. Since 2014, the mine, located about 60km south of Kumasi, has been in limited operating phase.
AngloGold Ashanti said that the ratification of the development agreement and the tax concession agreement is a major step in taking the Obuasi redevelopment project forward.
The redevelopment of the Ghanaian gold mine, which is expected to pour its first gold in the third quarter of 2019, is expected to involve a capital expenditure of $450-500m, after the exclusion of pre-production capital.
An environmental permitting process is at an advanced stage, said the gold miner.
AngloGold Ashanti CEO Srinivasan Venkatakrishnan said: “Obuasi is a high-grade, long- life ore body that will provide production for at least two decades at a very competitive cost, which will benefit a truly diverse set of stakeholders.”
The Obuasi redevelopment project will be carried out in two phases with the first stage involving project establishment, mine rehabilitation and development to go along with refurbishment of plant and infrastructure. The first phase, which will be of duration of around 18 months, will help in yielding 2,000 tonnes of daily production for the first operating year.
In the second phase, refurbishment of the underground materials handling system, shafts and ventilation, and construction of the primary crusher, the SAG/Ball circuit, carbon regeneration, a new gold room and tailings storage facility will be carried out. Anticipated to take an additional 12 months, this phase will enable the operation to ramp up to 4,000 tonnes per day.
Subsequently, the operation at the Obuasi gold mine is anticipated to go to 5,000 tonnes per day, over the next three years.
Operations at the redeveloped Obuasi gold mine are anticipated to generate 2000-2,500 jobs with more roles to be created during its construction phase.
Earlier, this year, AngloGold Ashanti’s board of directors had given their nod to an amount of $31m to be spent on front-end engineering and other preparatory work for the redevelopment of the Obuasi Gold Mine.