Perseus Mining Limited Perseus Mining Limited Perseus Mining Limited Perseus Mining Limited ABN 27 106 808 986 30 Ledgar Road, Balcatta, Western Australia 6021 PO Box 717 Balcatta WA 6914 Telephone: (618) 9240 6344 Facsimile: (618) 9240 2406 Email address: [email protected]Website: www.perseusmining.com 1 NEWS RELEASE 8 November 2010 SISSINGUE FEASIBILITY STUDY Tengrela Gold Project, Côte d’Ivoire Perseus Mining Limited (ASX/TSX: PRU) (“Perseus”) is pleased to announce details of its Feasibility Study (“the FS”) for the Sissingue deposit which forms part of the Company’s Tengrela Gold Project (“TGP”) in Côte d’Ivoire. In summary, the FS, which was managed on behalf of the Company by Mintrex, confirms the robust project economics of the TGP as well as the upside potential that exists from ongoing resource definition drilling. Mark Calderwood, Managing Director’s Comments “The robust outcome of the FS has provided Perseus with the basis for a decision to proceed with project permitting and construction planning for the Sissingue deposit on the Tengrela Gold Project. Even at a gold price under US$900 an ounce, the FS provides a payback period under two years.” “Perseus now has combined reserves of 2.79Moz between the TGP and the Central Ashanti Gold Project (“CAGP”) in Ghana and we are anticipating another significant reserve upgrade for the CAGP in December 2010.” “Though Measured and Indicated Resources were limited as a function of drilling density, we fast tracked the Sissingue FS to enable an early start to be made to the approval process and planning. Assuming that site construction can begin in 12 months, we would expect production to commence in Q4 2012.” “The FS has shown the TGP to be economically robust as it stands, however I believe there are still several avenues to enhance the profitability and longevity of the project. For example, we are confident that with further drilling we will convert existing Inferred Mineral Resources to the Indicated category during Q1 2011, thereby potentially adding a further 200,000 ounces to the US$950/oz pit shell model. In addition, extensional drilling following up on recent drill hits is likely to further expand our inventory of Mineral Resources and, ultimately, Reserves.” “Also, increasing the drilling density in the high grade zones within the existing Indicated Resource envelope may provide the statistical grounds to increase the top cut that has been applied to drill results, potentially allowing us to include some of the 280,000oz (or 40%) of the gold top cut out of the Mineral Resource used in the calculation of stage 1 and 2 Ore Reserves.” “The Company wishes to thank our staff, Mintrex and the other participants in the FS process for their efforts over the past 10 months to deliver the independent and high quality FS document on time and within budget”. Highlights of the Tengrela FS Initial Probable Ore Reserve of 657,000oz of gold (using US$950 gold price pit design). Production of 340,000oz (3.5Mt at 3.3g/t) of gold in first two years of a six year mine life. Cash costs (C1) in the first two years of US$421/oz, with mine life average cash costs of US$505 per oz. EBITDA of US$221M for first two years of production at US$1,100 gold price. Start-up capital cost of US$115 million paid back in 14 months at US$1,100 gold price. Plan to advance as fast as practicable, targeting first gold pour Q4 2012. Ongoing aggressive drilling will provide resource growth and extend mine life – next upgrade scheduled for Q1 2011.
SISSINGUE FEASIBILITY STUDY Tengrela Gold Project, Côte d’Ivoire
Perseus Mining Limited (ASX/TSX: PRU) (“Perseus”) is pleased to announce details of its Feasibility Study (“the FS”) for the Sissingue deposit which forms part of the Company’s Tengrela Gold Project (“TGP”) in Côte d’Ivoire.
In summary, the FS, which was managed on behalf of the Company by Mintrex, confirms the robust project economics of the TGP as well as the upside potential that exists from ongoing resource definition drilling.
Mark Calderwood, Managing Director’s Comments
“The robust outcome of the FS has provided Perseus with the basis for a decision to proceed with project permitting and construction planning for the Sissingue deposit on the Tengrela Gold Project. Even at a gold price under US$900 an ounce, the FS provides a payback period under two years.”
“Perseus now has combined reserves of 2.79Moz between the TGP and the Central Ashanti Gold Project (“CAGP”) in Ghana and we are anticipating another significant reserve upgrade for the CAGP in December 2010.”
“Though Measured and Indicated Resources were limited as a function of drilling density, we fast tracked the Sissingue FS to enable an early start to be made to the approval process and planning. Assuming that site construction can begin in 12 months, we would expect production to commence in Q4 2012.”
“The FS has shown the TGP to be economically robust as it stands, however I believe there are still several avenues to enhance the profitability and longevity of the project. For example, we are confident that with further drilling we will convert existing Inferred Mineral Resources to the Indicated category during Q1 2011, thereby potentially adding a further 200,000 ounces to the US$950/oz pit shell model. In addition, extensional drilling following up on recent drill hits is likely to further expand our inventory of Mineral Resources and, ultimately, Reserves.”
“Also, increasing the drilling density in the high grade zones within the existing Indicated Resource envelope may provide the statistical grounds to increase the top cut that has been applied to drill results, potentially allowing us to include some of the 280,000oz (or 40%) of the gold top cut out of the Mineral Resource used in the calculation of stage 1 and 2 Ore Reserves.”
“The Company wishes to thank our staff, Mintrex and the other participants in the FS process for their efforts over the past 10 months to deliver the independent and high quality FS document on time and within budget”.
Highlights of the Tengrela FS
� Initial Probable Ore Reserve of 657,000oz of gold (using US$950 gold price pit design).
� Production of 340,000oz (3.5Mt at 3.3g/t) of gold in first two years of a six year mine life.
� Cash costs (C1) in the first two years of US$421/oz, with mine life average cash costs of US$505 per oz.
� EBITDA of US$221M for first two years of production at US$1,100 gold price.
� Start-up capital cost of US$115 million paid back in 14 months at US$1,100 gold price.
� Plan to advance as fast as practicable, targeting first gold pour Q4 2012.
� Ongoing aggressive drilling will provide resource growth and extend mine life – next upgrade scheduled for Q1 2011.
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FS Strategy
The Company took the decision to complete the FS ahead of finalising the Resource drill-out, to enable development of the project to be fast tracked, even though this meant that many of the drill intercepts beneath and surrounding the Sissingue pit could not be included in the project’s Ore Reserves before more infill drilling is completed.
During the estimated two year period prior to production, the Company plans to continue its extensive drilling campaign in and around the initial pits and on targets within trucking distance to increase Ore Reserves and to improve head grades beyond the first three years of the project. The average head grade for the 5.2M tonnes of ore projected to be treated in the first three years of the mine life is 2.9 g/t gold, after allowance of ore loss, dilution and the heavy top cutting applied to high grades during resource modelling. In addition no selective mining unit was applied to the resource model.
Outline of FS Results
The TGP involves the development of a 1.75 Mtpa open cut mining operation, an appropriately sized conventional CIL gold processing plant and related infrastructure to mine and process ore from defined Mineral Reserves contained in the Sissingue gold deposit.
The FS assumes a contract mining operation and a process plant with a processing capacity of between 1.6 (fresh) and 2.0 million (oxide) tonnes per annum (Mtpa), to give approximately 5.6 years of mine life, based on currently defined Mineral Reserves.
A summary of the FS technical components is appended to this announcement and the commercial results are summarised below:
Key Parameters of the Sissingue Definitive Feasibility Study Gold Production
Year One 178,400 oz Years 1-3 (average) 147,000 oz pa Life of mine (average) 106,400 oz pa Ore Reserves 657,000oz (Probable)
Capital Costs and Operating Costs Initial Capital Cost US$115M (incl. US$14M contingency) Plant Capacity 1.6-2.0 million tpa Cash Costs C1 US$421/oz (Years 1&2) US$505/oz (5.6 years) Cash Costs + Royalty US$454/oz (Years 1&2) US$538/oz (5.6 years) based on 3% Government royalty
1) EBITDA is earnings prior to interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation but includes refining costs and Government royalties.
2) Royalties are based on the current industry rate of 3% payable to the Government of Côte d’Ivoire; no allowance has been made for acquisition royalties totalling approximately 0.5%.
3) The Base Case reflects mining of three pits only and a fixed 0.55g/t Au cut-off grade for ore. It treats mined Inferred Resources as waste. A nominal US$950 (Measured and Indicated Resources only) Whittle optimisation was used for the pit design.
4) C1 definition includes operating costs, administration and refining costs, and excludes royalties. 5) IRR is calculated at the commencement of production.
6) Perseus currently owns 80% of the project after allowance for the Government’s right to 10% and 10% held by its joint venture partner. Perseus has an option to acquire a further 5% interest in the Tengrela joint venture property.
Opportunities
There are a number of areas where the results projected in the FS can be improved. These include:
Reserves - Inferred Resources of about 118,000t at 2.3g/t Au containing 18,000 ounces of gold within the existing pit designs are classified as waste in the FS. In addition the US$950 pit optimisation shells inclusive of Inferred resources contained an additional 3.2Mt of material at 2.0g/t containing about 200,000oz of gold, 50% of which is already in the Indicated mineral resource category. Infill drilling of the Inferred Resource zones is likely to contribute to an increase in gold reserves.
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Drilling below and along strike from the current FS pit design has highlighted additional potential to increase resources and reserves, with notable intercepts made since the July Mineral Resource estimate worthy of follow-up including:
Hole
North (m)
East (m)
Depth (m)
Azm
(°)
Dip
(°) From (m)
To (m)
Width (m)
Au g/t
Location
SLC306 1,154,002 807,006 100 270 -55 84 96 12 21.2 South of pit
SLC316 1,154,359 806,165 115 270 -50 94 114 20 4.3 West of pit
Notes 1) All details of holes and sampling methods previously announced. 2) True width of intercepts from the current program at the Sissingue deposits is about 55-77% of the intercept
width.
Mining Selectivity - No attempt has been made to apply a selective mining approach to the resource block models, such that entire primary blocks of 20m x 10m x 5m (1,000m3) are either assumed to be mined and processed, or considered waste. Grade control may enable processing of a reduced number of tonnes at increased grades, thereby reducing processing costs.
Milling – The mining schedule allows for substantial stockpiling of low grade ore in early years, so there will be surplus ore feedstock available should the process plant prove capable of treating ore at throughput rates in excess of “name plate” capacity.
Project Implementation and Procurement
Subject to Board approval the Company plans to advance the implementation of the TGP as fast as practicable, and will start with permitting, engineering design and procurement of long lead items. In addition, as noted above, the Company intends to extend the mine life defined in the FS by aggressively expanding current drilling programs designed to convert Inferred Mineral Resources into Indicated Mineral Resources and ultimately Ore Reserves, and to extend the Mineral Resources at depth and along strike of the existing pit designs.
Access to site is anticipated to occur during Q4 2011, subject to the Government approval process. The Company has formed the basis of a strong “owners team” to undertake the development of the TGP and it is expected that after accessing the site it will take approximately 50 weeks to construct the project plant and infrastructure and start commissioning the processing plant, assuming timely ordering of long lead items.
Completion of construction works at the Company’s CAGP in Ghana will broadly coincide with the commencement of site activities for the TGP and it is anticipated that much of the experience gained in constructing the CAGP will contribute positively towards development of the TGP.
Project Financing
As at 30 June 2011, the Company expects to have approximately AUD$100 million on hand after funding the full development of the CAGP in Ghana and additional exploration and corporate costs to June 30, 2011 assuming full drawdown of the US$85M debt facility for the CAGP. A significant proportion of these funds will be available to fund the initial development costs of the TGP.
The balance of capital requirements could come from free cash flow generated by the CAGP (which is scheduled to commence production in the September quarter of 2011) and, if required, from equity or debt finance.
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Next Steps
The FS will be used as the basis for applying for all necessary regulatory approvals, including environmental and mining approvals from the Government of Côte d’Ivoire. Concurrent with embarking on the approval process, and subject to Board approval, the Company will commence detailed process plant design and call for tenders for the SAG mill and for an engineering procurement and construction management contract or lump sum turn key contract for the plant construction. The Company expects that detailed negotiations with engineers, suppliers and contractors will likely lead to enhanced project profitability and, where appropriate, other long lead items will be locked in to avoid project delays and provide pricing advantage.
Exploration is ongoing and the next Resource and Reserve estimate for the TGP is scheduled to be announced in Q1 2011.
Mark Calderwood Managing Director To discuss any aspect of this announcement, please contact: Mark Calderwood at telephone +61 8 9240 6344 or email [email protected] Nathan Ryan at telephone +0420 582 887 or email [email protected] Rebecca Greco at telephone +1 416 822 6483 or email [email protected] (Toronto)
About Perseus Mining Limited
Perseus Mining Limited (ASX/TSX: PRU) has forged a reputation as one of the West Africa’s most successful gold explorers. Focused on under-explored gold belts in West Africa, Perseus is on track to become a producer by the third quarter of 2011 at its Central Ashanti Gold Project in Ghana. The Company plans to produce at the initial rate of 220,000 ounces of gold in year 1 in Ghana and plans to increase this to 300,000 ounces per annum by 2013.
Perseus is now also working on development of its Tengrela Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire, with production targeted for late 2012. Tengrela has the potential to become a significant contributor in the Company’s goal to develop into a 400,000 ounce per year gold producer by 2013.
With 25,000m of drilling planned each month across its projects, Perseus will continue its strategy of rapidly increasing its resource and reserve base during the development of the CAGP and Tengrela.
In addition to its projects in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, Perseus retains a 28 per cent stake in Manas Resources Limited (ASX: MSR) which it spun off in 2008 as a focused Kyrgyz Republic gold explorer and developer. Perseus also has a 19.9% stake in, as well as a strategic alliance with, Burey Gold Limited (ASX: BYR), a listed exploration company focussed on Guinea, West Africa.
The information in this report that relates to Tengrela Gold Project ore reserves is based on information compiled by
Mr Harry Warries, who is a Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Warries is the
principal mining consultant and a full-time employee of Coffey Mining Perth Office, part of Coffey International
Limited. Mr Warries has sufficient experience, which is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit
under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the
2004 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’”)
and to qualify as a “Qualified Person” under National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral
Projects (“NI 43-101”). Mr Warries consents to the inclusion in this report of the matters based on his information in
the form and context in which it appears.
The information in this report that relates to exploration results and mineral resources is based on information
compiled by Mr Mark Calderwood, who is a Member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr
Calderwood is a Director and full-time employee of the Company. Mr Calderwood has sufficient experience, which is
relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is
undertaking, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2004 Edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting
of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’”) and to qualify as a “Qualified Person” under National
Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”).
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Mr Calderwood consents to the inclusion in this report of the matters based on his information in the form and context
in which it appears. For a description of Perseus’ data verification process, quality assurance and quality control
measures, the effective date of the mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates contained herein, details of the key
assumptions, parameters and methods used to estimate the mineral resources and reserves set out in this report and the
extent to which the estimate of mineral resources or mineral reserves set out herein may be materially affected by any
known environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing or other relevant issues, readers are
directed to the technical report entitled “Technical Report - Central Ashanti Gold Project, Ghana” dated November
30, 2009 and the technical report entitled ‘‘Technical Report - Tengrela Gold Project, Côte d’Ivoire’’ dated September
02, 2010 in relation to the Central Ashanti Gold Project and the Tengrela Gold Project respectively.
Caution Regarding Forward Looking Information: This report contains forward-looking information which is based
on assumptions and judgments of management regarding future events and results. Such forward-looking information
includes but is not limited to information with respect to future exploration and drilling, procurement of financing,
procurement of necessary regulatory approvals, the development of mines at the Central Ashanti Gold Project and
Tengrela.
Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the
actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any anticipated future
results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such factors include,
among others, the actual market price of gold, the actual results of current exploration, the actual results of future
exploration, , changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated, as well as those factors disclosed in the
Company's publicly filed documents.. The Company believes that the assumptions and expectations reflected in the
forward-looking information are reasonable. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things, the
Company’s ability to carry on its exploration and development activities, the timely receipt of required approvals, the
price of gold, the ability of the Company to operate in a safe, efficient and effective manner and the ability of the
Company to obtain financing as and when required and on reasonable terms. Readers should not place undue
reliance on forward-looking information. Perseus does not undertake to update any forward-looking information,
except in accordance with applicable securities laws.
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APPENDIX 1: SUMMARY OF FS COMPONENTS
FS Participants
Perseus Mining Limited’s Principal Metallurgist, Mr Paul Criddle was responsible for the overall co-ordination of the Tengrela Feasibility Study.
Mintrex, as manager of the independent study, used internal and independent participants to complete the FS. Each is considered competent in its respective discipline and where applicable has recent experience in West Africa. Other independent participants to the FS included:
Mintrex FS manager, process design, infrastructure cost, implementation and organisation
Runge Limited Geology and resources
Coffey Mining Geotechnical, hydrogeology, hydrology, TSF designs, pit optimisations, pit, waste dump and haul road design mining costs and scheduling
AMMTEC Ltd Metallurgical test-work
Process and Infrastructure Engineering (PIE)
Metallurgical Testwork management and design criteria review
BEC Engineering Electrical engineering
CECAF International (Côte d’Ivoire)
Environmental baseline and EIS scoping
Project Location & Ownership
The Tengrela Gold Project is situated within Côte d’Ivoire adjacent to the Mali border, approximately 700 kilometres north of the commercial capital Abidjan and 15 kilometres from the town of Tengrela.
The Tengrela Gold Project area consists of two contiguous exploration permits, RP145 (“Tengrela East”) and RP146 (“Tengrela South”) covering an aggregate area of approximately 876 km2. The proposed Sissingue mine and infrastructure will be located on Tengrela East, which is registered to Occidental Gold sarl, a subsidiary of Perseus.
Occidental Gold sarl has an 80% interest in the Tengrela Exploration Permits and its local joint venture partner, SOMICI, holds a 10% interest, with the remaining 10% interest reserved for the Government of Côte d’Ivoire (applicable upon grant of a mining permit). Perseus has an option to acquire a 5% interest in the Tengrela joint venture property from SOMICI.
Geology
Independent Mining Industry expert Runge Limited (“Runge”) has estimated resources at the Sissingue deposit identified by Perseus at the Tengrela Project. Details of the mineral resource estimate were released on 19 July 2010 and are included in an NI 43-101 Technical Report dated September 02, 2010.
The total Measured and Indicated (M&I) Mineral Resource estimate as of June 2010, of 15.5Mt at 1.9g/t Au containing 931,000 ounces of gold (using a 0.5g/t Au cut-off), represented a 43% increase in contained ounces of gold from the October 2009 Indicated Mineral Resource estimate. At a 1g/t Au cut-off grade, the July 2010 M&I Mineral Resource represented an increase of 37%, while Inferred Mineral Resource decreased from 5.5Mt at 1.7g/t Au to 3.5Mt at 1.7g/t Au, reflecting conversion of a portion of the Inferred Mineral Resource following infill drilling. The Mineral Resource Estimate is summarized in Tables 4 to 6 below.
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Drilling has been continuing since the effective June 2010 cut-off date for drill data used in the July 2010 Mineral Resource estimate.
Mining
Coffey Mining undertook geotechnical studies to determine suitable pit slopes and compiled the detailed mine production design and schedule, mining capital and operating cost estimate.
Pit optimisations based on the Runge resource model were completed by Coffey Mining in July 2010. The nominal US$950 Measured and Indicated resource shell was used as the basis of the pit design.
All Inferred resources were treated as waste for FS purposes.
A mining dilution factor of 5% was applied, with dilutive waste assumed to have no gold. In addition, a mining ore loss of 3% was assumed.
Mining operations will be by open cut method using conventional excavator/truck mining techniques. The Reserve of 9.7Mt at 2.1g/t Au is detailed in Table 7.
Metallurgy
The 1.6 Mtpa primary ore processing plant was designed utilising secondary crushing, single stage SAG milling. The process adopted to recover gold involves the “tried and tested” flow sheet of gravity concentration in grinding circuit and then CIL treatment of cyclone overflow.
Test work on representative samples was completed by AMMTEC under the management of Process and Infrastructure Engineering (PIE).
Ore hardness for the primary ore is considered moderate to hard, and was confirmed to be amenable to semi-autogeneous grinding (“SAG”) as confirmed in modelling performed by OMC (Orway Mineral Consultants).
Metallurgical testwork indicates that a combination of gravity recovery of coarse/free gold in the grinding circuit and CIL recovery processes result in high gold recoveries.
An optimum primary grind size of 80% passing 106µm was selected based on comprehensive metallurgical testwork. Overall the testwork demonstrated that acceptable gold recovery and consistent gold concentrations in residue can be expected when treating Sissingue oxide and fresh ores with the gravity / CIL flowsheet selected.
Predicted metallurgical recoveries vary depending on the ore type and are summarised in the following table.
Table 2: Predicted Overall Gold Recovery
Ore Type Oxide Primary Average
(weighted)
% Gold
Recovery 92 90 90.7
% of
Reserves 34 66 100
Process Plant
The process plant is based on a typical gold process flowsheet consisting of two stage crushing, single-stage SAG milling, gravity concentration and CIL leach. The plant is designed for a nominal 1.6mtpa throughput on fresh ore:
• ROM bin with a capacity of 150 tonnes fed from front loaders and direct tip.
• Primary single toggle jaw crusher with close setting of 125mm fed from plate feeder and vibrating grizzly.
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• Secondary cone crusher with close setting of 30mm fed from sizing screen.
• A 3,000t live capacity stockpile followed by two apron feeders and a 5.5M diameter by 9.15M effective grinding length (EGL) single stage SAG mill complete with 4,275 kW drive.
• A pebble crusher to achieve a product of 80% passing 12 mm.
• Gravity circuit on cyclone underflow consisting of one centrifugal concentrator and an Intensive Leach Reactor for the gravity concentrate.
• CIL circuit comprising of eight stages.
• Stripping plant includes elution circuit with elution column, 2 electrowinning cells, smelting of the product and a carbon regeneration kiln
Due to the potential for very high grade ore feed and potential for high average gold head grades for extended periods the gravity recovery circuit has been designed to treat greater proportion of cyclone underflow than industry norm and a conservative position has been taken on total CIL residence time and carbon striping.
The process plant and associated infrastructure has an annual average power demand of 31.43kWh/t of ore processed, requiring an annual average supply of 5.7 MW or 50.3GWh per year. Infrastructure
Assumed project infrastructure includes:
• A rented diesel power station in the first year of operation and a 101km 90 kV power line and associated infrastructure connected to the Côte d’Ivoire electricity grid from year two onwards. The estimated US$29.4M cost of the electricity grid connection has been included as a sustaining capital cost. There is potential to decrease this connection cost by using a shorter route. Further work will be undertaken to evaluate opportunities to reduce capital and unit cost associated with the power grid connection.
• Site roads and buildings, construction of a tailings storage facility and process water supply and storage.
• The construction of suitable buildings to support the operation, including an administration office, laboratory, workshop, warehouse, plant maintenance office and process plant switch rooms and an allowance for the construction of a new accommodation facility.
• Primary process water supply for the project obtained by recovering water captured in the water storage facility located to the south-east of the project area and water extraction from the Bagoe River adjacent to the project area.
Operating Costs
The operating costs have been estimated from a variety of sources including:
• First principle estimates.
• Consumable consumption rates as provided by PIE and Mintrex.
• Power and grinding media consumption as provided by Orway Mineral Consultants (OMC).
• Quotations for the supply of consumables and services.
• Mining and ore rehandling costs as applied from recent quotations from contractors with West African experience, with a median price being adopted.
• Advice from Perseus and other sources within the mining industry in Cote d’Ivoire.
• Mintrex database of costs from similar sized and located operations (such as the Bonikro Project).
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Operating costs are presented in United States dollars (US$) and are based on prices obtained during the third quarter of 2010. Exchange rates were applied as set out in the capital costs section below. Current prices were used and no escalation or de-escalation allowance has been made. Rehabilitation, bullion transport and refining costs and Côte d’Ivoire corporate overhead costs were included, but financing and exploration costs were excluded.
Mining contractor negotiations and schedule optimisation have been recognised as areas where the project economics can be improved. The Company is also commencing an “owners study” to evaluate potential mining cost reductions.
Capital Costs
The capital cost estimate has been prepared and is presented in United States dollars as at the third quarter 2010 to an accuracy level of +/-15%. All pricing assumes new equipment.
Table 3 summarises the capital cost estimate for the Project, including contingencies.
A year-by-year estimate of sustaining capital expenditure, totalling US$32.6M, has been included in the FS financial analysis. Most of the sustaining capital cost is attributable to the cost of connecting to grid power.
The source data was collected in United States Dollars, Côte d’Ivoire CFA, Euro, South African Rand and Australian Dollars, as appropriate. Exchange rates used to develop the costs are as follows:
CFA Franc (XOF ) = $0.0021 USD
Euros (EUR) = $1.375 USD
Australian Dollar (AUD)= $0.97 USD
South African Rand (ZAR) = $0.144 USD
Canadian Dollars (CD) = 0.98 USD.
Table 3: Capital Cost Summary
Main Area US$M
Treatment Plant Costs 64
Infrastructure 9
EPCM Management Costs 10
Total Plant & Infrastructure 83
Owner’s Costs
13
Construction Capital Cost Estimate 96 Contingency (15% construction and owners cost) 14 Pre-Production Mining Costs
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Total Project Capital Allowance
115
Economic Assessment
A summary of the economic assessment of the project is set out in Table 1 on page 3. This economic assessment allows for current Ivorian taxes, government royalties, government charges and fees.
Environment and Community
In accordance with Côte d’Ivoire environmental legislation Perseus is preparing an Environmental Impact Assessment in order to obtain an Environmental Permit for the Project. To date, an approved Scoping Report and Terms of Reference for the project have been developed. As part of the FS, an environmental baseline
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study has been completed for the Sissingue area. This baseline study has assessed the atmospheric, land-use (archaeological, flora and fauna, soils and land use), surface water and groundwater hydrology and quality and socio-economic characteristics of the Project area. The proposed development can be described as a “green fields” site, with little to no evidence of previous mining.
Perseus is committed to developing and implementing an Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) that is consistent with Ivorian and internationally accepted principles for sustainable development. This includes a commitment to treating all affected parties with dignity and respect and ensuring that all processes relating to such development will be transparent, fair and equitable.
Table 4: June 2010 Mineral Resource Estimate – Sissingue Deposit at 1.0g/t Au Cut-off
Measured Indicated Measured & Indicated Inferred
Type Tonnes Au Tonnes Au Tonnes Au Au Tonnes Au Au
1) Mineral Resource estimated by Runge Limited 2) Details of Mineral Resource Estimate previously released on 19/07/2010
Table 7: October 2010 Mineral Reserve Estimate – Sissingue Deposit
Probable Ore Reserve
Type Tonnes Au Au
Mt g/t Koz
Oxide/Transition 3.4 2.1 224
Primary 6.3 2.1 433
Total 9.7 2.1 657 Notes:
1) Reserve estimated by Coffee Mining using a pit design based on a US$950 gold price optimisation. 2) All Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources in pit designs designated as Probable Ore Reserves, Inferred
Mineral Resources considered as waste. 3) A mining dilution of 5% was applied at a 0.0g/t diluting grade. In addition, a mining ore loss of 3% was assumed. 4) The Probable Ore Reserve as declared for the FS was estimated at a 0.55g/t Au cut-off.
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5) Figure 1: Proposed plant layout
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Figure 2: Oblique view of model and pit design
Figure 3: Long Section of model and pit design
Indicated – Aqua
Inferred - Yellow
Indicated – Aqua
Inferred - Yellow
Target Area
Target Area
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Figure 4: Oblique view of pit design (blue) and US$950 MI&I optimisation shell (brown)
