UK company Cluff Gold has announced its board’s decision to proceed and bring into production the Angovia gold project in Côte d’Ivoire and the Kalsaka gold project in Burkina Faso. The company is fully funded to develop Angovia and to initiate development work at Kalsaka.
As a result of this, the company has appointed Banlaw Africa as the mining contractor and Anthony Smith as project engineer for both Kalsaka and Angovia. Banlaw is a company based in Ghana, which provides contract mining, earthworks, civil engineering and environmental services to mining companies in West Africa. Banlaw has extensive experience managing mining projects in the region and existing clients include Gold Fields Ghana at its Tarkwa gold mine and Newmont Ghana Gold at its Ahafo gold mine. Most recently Banlaw was awarded the task of preparing the site earthworks at the Perkoa zinc project in Burkina Faso for the Aim company, Aim Resources Limited.
Kalsaka is located approximately 150 km north west of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and contains an oxide gold mineral resource of 600 000 oz that has been demonstrated, by a feasibility study, to be technically amenable to openpit mining and processing by means of heap leaching.
Water, environmental and mining permits for the project have been granted. The mining permit is valid for twenty years.
Smith is a metallurgical engineer with over twenty-years’ experience in the mining industry, mainly in Australia and West Africa, where he managed the development, construction and operation of several heap-leach projects, including the Ayanfuri gold mine, previously operated by Cluff Resources. As project engineer, Smith will be responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction and management for Kalsaka and Angovia.
In addition to these appointments, Cluff Gold has begun ordering key mining equipment, including two refurbished MMD mineral sizers (crushers) and spares for use at Kalsaka and Angovia.
“The appointment of a mining contractor and project engineer are key milestones in the development of Kalsaka and Angovia.
“We look forward to working with Banlaw and Smith, who are both experienced operators. Our combined knowledge of West Africa will be extremely beneficial to the successful transformation of the company as we move from exploration to production,’’ comments Cluff Gold technical director Douglas Chikohora. The Mt Yaoure permit is located 40 km north-west of Yamoussoukro, the political capital of Côte d’Ivoire, and covers a surface area of 534 km.
The licence area includes the Angovia gold mine, which opera-ted between 1998 and 2003. The mine reportedly produced over 180 000 oz of gold during this period by heap-leaching some two-million tons of oxide material. The Côte d’Ivoire government has issued a certificate to CMA, a subsidiary of Cogema, the French uranium-mining group, evidencing that it has complied with the work prescribed by the mining regulations relating to the protection of the environment and the restoration of the part of the licence area covered by the Angovia gold mine.
The infrastructure in the area is good and includes a hydroelectric dam six kilometres from the Angovia mine site.
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