Goldbelt starts Belahouro permitting

Following a positive prefeasibility study, Goldbelt Resources (GLD-V, GLDDF-O) has submitted applications for mining permits on the Inata gold deposit, part of Goldbelt’s Belahouro project in north-central Burkina Faso.

Goldbelt is seeking permits to operate an open-pit mine on the Inata deposit and a conventional carbon-in-leach gold plant at Belahouro, to produce 80,000 oz. gold annually. The government requires an environmental impact statement and a development plan indicating that the project is technically feasible.

Consulting firm GBM produced an “analysis of technical criteria,” essentially at prefeasibility level, for the development plan, estimating the capital cost of the project at US$49.6 million. Operating costs clocked in at US$20 per tonne.

GBM did not calculate a minable reserve for the Inata mineralization, but the economic study was based on two resources, a high-grade resource of 7.4 million tonnes grading 2.61 grams gold per tonne and a low-grade resource of 1.7 million tonnes grading 0.69 gram per tonne. Pit designs, based on the high-grade resource only, had a stripping ratio of about 6.5:1.

Last November, Resource Service Group calculated a measured and indicated resource of 15 million tonnes grading 1.9 grams per tonne, divided into saprolite, partly weathered transitional material, and primary hard rock.

The saprolite was the largest resource, with 10.7 million tonnes grading 2 grams gold per tonne. There were 2.3 million tonnes of transitional material grading 1.9 grams per tonne and 2 million tonnes of hard rock running 1.8 grams.

Economic analyses of the project put the internal rate of return at 21% and the after-tax cash flow at US$51.7 million. At a 10% discount rate, the project’s net present value is US$19 million.

Goldbelt holds a 100% interest in the project, subject to a 2.5% net smelter return, formerly held by BHP Billiton (BHP-N) and now held by International Royalty (IRC-T).