KEFI Minerals (LON:KEFI) hailed a "very successful" second quarter, in which it continued to progress its flagship Tulu Kapi project in Ethiopia.
The firm was granted a 20-year mining licence and completed the 2015 Definitive Feasibility Study.
The initial funding requirement remains at around US$120 million, based on planned use of contract-mining and all-new processing plant - representing a significant decrease compared to a 2012 DFS.
"We are now focusing on finalising full development funding for Tulu Kapi this quarter with a view to commencing construction by year end, commissioning late 2016 and gold production in 2017," said executive chairman Harry Anagnostaras-Adams.
Meanwhile, at its projects in Saudi Arabia, continued exploration has yielded encouraging results.
"In addition, to support our activities, we completed our scheduled equity placing to raise approximately £3 million," added Adams.
At the Jibal Qutman joint venture in Saudi, where Kefi owns 40% and is operator, a preliminary economic assessment evaluating a potential heap leach operation on a potential open cut resource of 6.6Mt at 0.95g/t gold, containing 201,600 ounces was carried out.
Early assessments suggests an operating cash cost of US$600 per ounce on a 1.5Mt (million tonne) per annum heap leach mine.