Premier African Minerals portfolio firm makes good progress

Mining and exploration company Premier African Minerals was upbeat on the progress being made by its portfolio company Casa Mining, it announced on Tuesday, in which it holds a 4.5% interest.

The AIM-traded firm said Casa Mining is a privately-owned mineral exploration company focused on developing the Akyanga gold deposit, part of the prospective Misisi Gold Project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Casa had commenced a 5,000 metres drilling programme with the aim to increase and upgrade the existing mineral resource estimate.

The first 2,200 metres were expected to be completed during October.

Premier African also said that Casa has a 71.25% interest in, and is the operator of, the Misisi Gold Project located in South Kivu, eastern DRC, approximately 350km south of Bukavu and 180km north of Kalemie.

In 2014, SRK Consultants reported an inferred mineral resource at the Akyanga deposit of 5.5 Mt at a grade of 1.5 g/t Au for approximately 272koz of contained metal.

SRK had further reported an inferred transition gold mineral resource of 16.2 Mt at a grade of 1.8 g/t Au for approximately 927koz of contained metal.

Premier African said that MDM Engineering Projects, in conjunction with SRK, completed a scoping feasibility study for an 80,000 oz year heap-leach operation at the Akyanga deposit, resulting in an ungeared net present value and internal rate of return of $171m and 35% respectively, at a $1,300/oz gold price.

That assumes a contract mining scenario, with an initial capital cost estimate of$87.4m and a total operating cost of $628/oz.

Additionally, African Mining Consultants recently completed a review and re-interpretation of the geological model of the Akyanga deposit, and reported a 1.05Moz JORC inferred resource at a grade of 2.27 g/t Au within a lower grade envelope of 1.57Moz at a grade of 1.65 g/t Au.