Mano River (MNO.V) Liberia gold Production next year
Mano River Hopes To Be Producing Gold In Liberia By End 2007.
Minesite -- Date: June 17, 2006
The news that AIM and Canadian listed Mano River Resources has signed up MODEM Engineering from Johannesburg to carry out a bankable feasibility study at its KGL and Weaju gold projects needs to be put in a historic context. The company listed in September 1998 and the president, Tom Elder, joined in October and immediately went out to Liberia . After studying the work done by artisan miners on hard rock at the King George Larjor project he ordered a drill from England and work started before the end of the year. The focus was on two sections each of around 100 metres in length where the artisans had been mining ore grading 5 to 10 g/t. The second hole, which was drilled in the first quarter of 1999 intersected 16 metres grading 8.8 g/t gold and the results were reasonably consistent thereafter with hole 13 hitting 26 metres at 6.2 g/t.
The gold price, however, was not encouraging at the time . The UK’s goonish Chancellor Gordon Brown was selling our gold reserves regardless of the impact on the citizens of poor countries in West Africa. As a result Mano River swiched its focus to diamond exploration and found the first diamondiferous kimberlite pipe in the country in 2000. From 2001 to the end of 2004, however, there was civil strife in the country which was under the rule of the ruthless Charles Taylor and Mano River had to put its activities there on hold.
By 2005 gold exploration work was resumed and the good results continued with an intersection of 37 metres grading 8.45 g/t gold announced last month.. The geology was straightforward, the metallurgy simple and the grades consistently good, so a resource estimate was the next move and the result of this should be announced next month. The feasibility study itself should only take four months to complete so can be anticipated in September. It will cost US$700,000 and will focus on KGL and Weaju, two neighbouring projects in Western Liberia being developed as open pit operations with conventional milling. Supervision of the study for Mano will be the responsibility of Mark Austin, a highly experienced ex-JCI and Placer Dome geologist and former manager of several gold and diamond mines in Africa, who was appointed as vice president operations recently.
The principal focus of the study, which is already under way, will be on the KGL deposit which will be renamed the New Liberty gold mine. A programme is being undertaken to enable the current gold ‘resource’ to be reclassified as a ‘mineral reserve’ and is nearing completion. Metallurgical and geotechnical holes, the latter to assist pit wall design, have already been finished. The study will also include the Weaju gold project which is 30kms to the north east, but still inside the 25 year Bea Mineral Development Agreement licence. Provided the ore from Weaju proves to be of sufficiently high grade it will be trucked to New Liberty Gold Mine for processing, so there will be no need for a separate plant.
If the bankable feasibility proves robust, as expected , it is thought that the project could be in production before the end of 2007, which is very fast indeed. The capital development requirement could be in the region of US$30 to US$40 million to develop mines and a plant capable of producing 60 to 70,000 ounces of gold/year at a cash cost of less than US$250/oz. At the present price of gold this would mean a substantial cash flow which should increase over time as the bankable feasibility study will also allow for plant upgrades to process other sources of ores. The use of “modular” design will be fully investigated, so as to permit increased gold production in the event that further exploration increases the gold reserves.
Mano River presently has some 25,000 sq kms under mineral licence with promising gold prospects in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. It also has one, and possibly a second cluster of diamondiferous pipes in Liberia, and joint ventures in place with BHP-Billiton, Golden Star Resources, Navasota, Petra Diamonds, Searchgold and Trans Hex Group. Joint venture partner Trans Hex is now drilling several of the diamondiferous kimberlite pipes found by Mano in Liberia back in 2000 and 2001.
Companies featured in this Story
Mano River Resources Inc (TSX.V-MNO,AIM-MANA)
Petra Diamonds Ltd (AIM-PDL)
