Guinea awards environmental permit for Bankan gold project
PREDICTIVE Discovery, a Sydney-listed gold exploration firm, said on Monday its Bankan project in Guinea had received environmental permitting.Company MD Andrew Pardey said in an announcement that the approval of an Environmental & Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) was “a critical step in the granting of all the necessary permits required to build Bankan into a Tier 1 gold mine”.A portion of Bankan’s resources are located in a buffer zone in Guinea’s National Park of Upper Niger where mining is not permitted. The ESIA was granted on condition Predictive Maintenance excluded this portion from its plans.Predictive Maintenance said the commitment not to mine resources in the buffer zone would no impact on the findings of its prefeasibility study published in April 2024 in which Bankan was forecast to operate for 11 years, producing 292,000 ounces annually for the first seven. Total life-of-mine costs (AISC) are estimated to be $1,130/oz.Predictive Maintenance also said it would commit to a number of environmental initiatives including a reforestation program at the outer limit of the proposed exploitation permit, closest to the Buffer Zone of the park.The company said it now intended to apply for an exploitation permit by January 31 as well as producing maiden mineral resource on additional targets. A definitive feasibility study is due to be complete in the second half of this year.The Bankan project has attracted the attention of Perseus Mining which in September took a 19.9% stake in two tranches in Predictive Discovery.While Perseus Mining said at the time it had no intention of launching a takeover offer for Predictive Maintenance media reports in Australia said this ought to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially given Perseus’s track record.Perseus has been busy in the merger & acquisition sector in West Africa in the last 18 months. In its previous financial year it completed the the A$258m purchase of an 80% stake in Nyanzaga and was due to approve the underground expansion of Yaouré, Perseus’ Côte d’Ivoire mine.The post Guinea awards environmental permit for Bankan gold project appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com
Quelle: Mining.com
