KEFI Gold and Copper (AIM: KEFI) has obtained a positive assessment of the PFS for Hawiah, the largest discovery to date by KEFI’s 27%-owned Saudi Arabian joint-venture Gold and Minerals Company Limited (GMCO).
Hawiah is a part of a larger mineralized system and the January 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) contains a total of 258,000t (569Mlbs) of copper, 272,000t (600Mlbs) of zinc, 620,000oz of gold and 9.4Moz of silver. Hawiah already ranks amongst the top three base metal projects in Saudi Arabia and the largest 15% VMS (Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide) systems globally.
KEFI also announced a maiden MRE for the nearby (12km from Hawiah) Al Godeyer deposit of 1.35Mt at 0.6% copper, 0.54% zinc, 1.4g/t gold and 6.6g/t silver on 3 April 2023.
GMCO drilling totalling 58,194m since discovery in 2019 has established the Hawiah MRE of 29.0 million tonnes (Mt) at 0.89% copper, 0.94% zinc, 0.67g/t gold and 10.1g/t silver.
Whilst the primary focus of the PFS was the relatively close-to-surface portion of the MRE in the Indicated Resource category, complementary studies on the Inferred Resource reported for the deeper part of the orebody (the near-vertical tabular structure drill-intercepted over more than 4km strike length) have allowed a clear positive assessment to be made of Hawiah’s economic merits without taking into account expected further Resource growth.
The Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) will in due course refine and optimize the entire Hawiah Complex.
Highlights
• The Pre-Feasibility Study (“PFS”) on the Hawiah open-pit and associated studies on the underground mine have provided a positive foundation for the optimization and development of Hawiah, in Saudi Arabia;
• Project NPV8 of US$301M and post-tax IRR of 75%, based on mining current Indicated and Inferred Resources, Life of Mine (“LOM”) revenue of US$2.7B, operating cashflow of US$1.1B and pre-production capital expenditure of US$295M. These estimates are based on spot gold prices as at 30 April 2023 and an assumed mining rate starting at two million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) and peaking at 3 Mtpa over 10 years;
• It is envisaged that initial open pit mining will be followed by, and complemented by, underground mining. Metallurgical test results, based on limited samples to date, indicate that a conventional processing flowsheet provides high metal recoveries to a c.25% copper concentrate and a c.50% zinc concentrate and gold doré; and
• Optimization studies will in due course consider a range of scenarios including various aggregate production rates and the ideal timing for starting-up the underground operation. For the time being, unit costs of production have been based on an assumed production rate of 2 Mtpa and the sequential mining of underground after an open cut phase.
“The PFS demonstrates an attractive project at Hawiah,” Executive Chairman, Harry Anagnostaras-Adams, said.
“To date we have only tested a small part of the Hawiah district and we already have a project that can be optimised for development.
“Following the recent capital-raise, work is already underway on the +50,000m drilling programme which will complement the Hawiah PFS and associated studies. We look forward to reporting exploration results as we establish a globally significant VMS project at Hawiah. We are also wrapping up a 13,000m programme at Jibal Qutman Gold and assessing initial results from reconnaissance over the fourteen exploration licences granted in the past eighteen months to our operating joint venture company. This is a truly exciting rate of progress in what today is perhaps the world’s most exciting jurisdiction for minerals exploration.
“KEFI has now established its leadership position in the Arabian-Nubian Shield and has assembled development finance at the subsidiary and project levels for all three advanced projects which have combined c.5Moz gold-equivalent resources which remain open for extensional drilling.”
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