African Gold Group, Inc. (TSX-V:AGG) CEO Danny Callow called 2021 “a transformative” year as the company expects accelerated growth in 2022 and beyond with its Kobada Gold project in Southern Mali.
“As we move into 2022, the principal focus of our growth strategy next year is to complete the financing of the project so that we can move into construction phase,” Callow said in a letter to shareholders.
“AGG’s team and I would like to thank all of our shareholders for your continued support. None of our progress and the opportunity that lies ahead would be possible without you. The last year has been both a challenging and exciting period for African Gold Group, as we have positioned the company to execute on its ambitious agenda for 2022. I believe 2022 will be a year of significant success for the African Gold Group and, as a result, shareholder value.”
READ: African Gold continues to expand resource potential at Kobada Est in Mali
Callow added: “Throughout this past year, we achieved several corporate and operational milestones, some of which included reducing overhead costs substantially through a corporate restructuring, strengthening our leadership team, delivery of a substantially improved definitive feasibility study (DFS), delivery of our updated Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA), award of a new Environmental Permit and extension of our exploration licenses. The long journey to prepare the Kobada Gold Project for the next stage is now entering the most exciting and rewarding phase."
The majority of 2021, he noted, has been largely focused on the delivery of an updated definitive feasibility study for the Kobada Gold project, which was delivered in October 2021.
“Over the past two years we have worked tirelessly on the technical elements of the project to demonstrate that the Kobada project has the potential to be one of the largest new gold projects in West Africa,” Callow said. “Since new management took over in August 2019, and with new drilling campaigns totaling more than 18,000 metres, we have managed to increase our reserve base by 144% (66% increase over the 2020 DFS) and our measured and indicated resource more than 40%.
"With our updated 2021 DFS we have shown that Kobada has the potential to produce over 1.2 mln oz of gold over a 16-year mine life while delivering solid economics with post-tax NPV 5% of US$355 million and an IRR of 38%.”
Other milestones that Callow cited:
- In the second half of 2021, the Ministry of Environment, Sanitation and Sustainable Development of the Republic of Mali approved the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for the Kobada Gold Project and issued an updated Environmental Permit. The approval of ESIA marks a key milestone in the permitting process and is the culmination of extensive consultations and stakeholder engagement.
- In the second half of 2021, the company received a crucially important renewal and extension of the Kobada Est exploration permit for a period of three years. The Kobada Est exploration permit covers an area of 7,700 hectares and forms part of the Kobada Gold project’s highly prospective contiguous exploration and mining permits, totaling 25,770 hectares.
- In addition, the company’s contiguous Faraba permit was also renewed by the Ministry of Mines for a further three years, and significant upside potential exists for expanding the mineral resource estimate through further exploration.
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