Toubani to bank A$240m a year from Mali gold…for 9 years

Toubani Resources has tabled a stunning Definitive Feasibility Study for its Kobada gold project in Mali which it says will deliver a post-tax net present value of US$635 million and $US1.499b in total pre-tax cash flows over its initial 9.2 year mine life.

Notably, the company says it can churn out an ounce of gold on an all in sustaining cost basis at the project for just US$1004 per ounce, which compares pretty handily against today’s gold price of US$2783.

CAPEX is expected to come in at around US$216 million and the company says it will have that amount paid down from operations at the project in just 1.5 years with an internal rate of return post tax of 58%.

The operation will produce 1,494,000 ounces of gold at an average annual production rate of 162,000 ounces per year, placing it amongst a rarified group of gold players in West Africa that are capable of producing more than 150,000 ounces of gold a year.

And with the gold price seemingly still on the ascendent amid current global tensions, the DFS’ modelled gold price of $US2200, also contrasts favourably with today’s gold price of US$2787 (A$4243).

In fact, Toubani says the post tax NPV on the project would hike to US$897m from US$635m if a still relatively conservative US$2600 an ounce gold price was used.

The Kobada gold deposit lies within a large-scale, shallow, open-pittable, mostly oxide gold zone which extends over about 5km along an east/north-easterly strike.

Within this zone Toubani has defined a total indicated and inferred gold resource of 78 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.88g/t gold, for a total of 2.2 million ounces of gold within a strike distance of about 4.5km.

1.99 million ounces comprising the indicated category makes up 90 per cent of the total 2.2-million-ounce mineral resource and most of the indicated category material lies within the 4.5km strike.

The inferred category material predominantly occupies the remaining 500m in the south-west extremity of the total resource envelope. Only a minor component of the inferred material lies inside the DFS envelope and has been conservatively earmarked for modelling purposes as waste.

The 53.8 million tonnes of ore reserves all lie within the probable category at a grade of 0.9g/t gold for a total of 1.56 million ounces of gold, which represents a significant 71 per cent of the conversion of the total mineral resource or about 78 per cent of the converted Indicated resource.

Toubani says the defined mineralisation remains open beyond both currently known strike limits and also at depth and it plans to undertake deeper drilling in due course to support potential resource extensions and future mine expansion.

The undulating base of oxidation sits around 200m below surface at its maximum depth - in the Stage-2 pit - within the proposed five nested open-pits which represent five key mining stages.

Notably, four of the five stages are exposed at surface and are characterised by low strip ratios while the overall end-of-mine waste: ore strip ratio of 3:1 places Kobada at number three amongst selected peer West African development projects. The initial Stage-1 pit has a strip ratio of just 1.8:1.

Average total material moved is figured to be 22.8 million tonnes per year, peaking at 30 million tonnes, for a total tonnage of material moved of 216.2 million tonnes.

The first six years of mining will pull out only oxide ore at grades between about 1.01g/t gold in Year-1 and generally better than 0.8g/t through the following years, kicking up to 1.05g/t in Year-7.

Only a relatively small proportion of fresh ore is envisaged in the DFS, coming into effect in the final three years, 7 to 9 at the project, coinciding with a slight tapering-off in grade to 0.79 g/t gold in Year-9.

Kobada’s ore processing comprises a simple flowsheet incorporating conventional up-front gravity gold separation ahead of a carbon-in-cyanide leach adsorption and electrowinning circuit. Notably the company says it can achieve recovery rates of around 96 per cent in almost exclusively free-milling oxide material.

Despite its relatively modest grade, Kobada has a grab bag of key advantages that set it up as a high margin mine. It has a simple processing circuit and is mostly characterised by exclusively soft-rock, free-dig, free milling ore.

The near-surface, bulk-mineable, low-strip ratio nature of the project further adds to its compelling economics and Toubani says it is only just getting started with the initial 9 year mine life.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au