Teranga Gold has stated that it expects to enhance production by 50% through development of its Banfora gold project in Burkina Faso, West Africa.
A feasibility study was completed at the project, which comprises a mine licence of 89km, and a regional exploration land package of around 1,000km².
Based on results of the study, the project is said to have a 15% internal rate of return at $1,250 per ounce gold for a 2.4Mt per year carbon in leach (CiL) processing facility.
Teranga Gold president and CEO Richard Young said: "Development of the Banfora project is an important step towards attaining our goal of becoming the next multi-asset, mid-tier gold producer in West Africa.
"It will diversify our production base and add significant scale by increasing our consolidated annual gold production by 50% to between 300,000oz and 350,000oz."
The project has initial gold reserves of 1.2 million ounces, with inferred resources of 15.8Mt at 1.40g/t gold, as well as measured and indicated resources of 35.3Mt at 1.61g/t.
In addition, a pre-production capital expenditure of $232m is required to develop the project, which is estimated to have an after-tax net present value (NPV) of $90m at a discount rate of 5%.
Average annual production in the first 5.5 years is estimated to be around 131,000oz.
The project is expected to have a mine life of nine years, with an average annual production of 119,000oz during the entire period.
The company has completed half of the work related to a 65,000m infill drilling programme, which is increasing the drill hole density in in-pit areas.
