The Bibiani and Chirano gold mines, situated 15 km apart in Ghana, are expected to produce a combined 400,000 oz. of gold next year, according to Asante Gold (CSE: ASE).
Asante acquired the open pit Bibiani mine from Resolute Mining in August 2021, started open pit mining operations in February 2022, and after completing the refurbishment and commissioning of the process plant in June, poured first gold in July. Commercial production followed in November.
The company closed its acquisition of Chirano, an open pit and underground gold mining operation to the south of Bibiani, in August.
Asante continues exploration programs at both mines, with the goal of increasing the mine life at Bibiani from 8.3 years to 10 years, and at Chirano from five to ten years.
Chirano is an open-pit and underground gold mine in southwestern Ghana. (Image courtesy of Kinross Gold.)
“Over the past 12 months we have transformed Asante from an early-stage exploration company to a mid-tier gold producer,” Dave Anthony, Asante’s president and CEO, stated in a recent news release. “Looking forward, we have consolidated two operating mines near each other, creating a district scale land package with tremendous exploration potential.”
The company has also identified synergies at the two mines of about $5.5 million to $7 million a year, it says, and expects to start rolling those out through the second quarter of next year.
Among those initiatives is the development of an access road to directly link the processing plants, which stand 20 km apart.
Over the last year, Asante has traded in a range of 9¢ and 12¢ per share and at presstime was trading at 9.8¢.
The junior has about 370 million common shares outstanding for a market cap of roughly $361 million.
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