Mr. Michael Hopley reports
SUNRIDGE GOLD PROVIDES 2014 OUTLOOK
Sunridge Gold Corp. has provided an outlook on some of the company's
activities planned for 2014, which is expected to be an important year
for the company as it anticipates passing a significant number of
milestones as it drives its Asmara project in Eritrea as rapidly as
possible toward production. Some of these milestones and other salient
points for the year are as follows:
- Mining licence: The permitting process for the Asmara mine was
initiated last month with the submittal to the Ministry of Energy and
Mines of the summary of the social and environmental impact assessment
report for the Asmara project. The permitting process to
acquire the mining licence is expected to take nine to 12 months.
- Enamco: Negotiations continue with Eritrean National Mining
Corp. to determine the price it will pay to the
company to purchase 30 per cent of the Asmara project from the company.
Management of the company is encouraged with progress made in
discussions late in 2013 and it is expected that these negotiations
will be completed in early 2014. The time taken to negotiate this
settlement is consistent with the time it took other companies to
negotiate similar settlements with Enamco.
- Project financing: A project information memorandum was
disseminated to a group of potential debt financing lenders in late
2013. This group included commercial and development banks, export
credit agencies and equipment suppliers, commodity off-take companies
and royalty and streaming groups. At this stage several financing
options are under consideration including conventional senior secured
project related debt facilities and subordinated debt. Sunridge's
management will be continuing discussions with potential lending
groups during the first quarter of 2014 with expectations of
indicative term sheets to be delivered from the groups by the second
half 2014 for consideration. The consulting group Micon International
Ltd. has recently completed an independent "due diligence" review
of the Asmara project which is now available to these potential
lenders.
- Engineering: Eligible engineering firm candidates for
engineering, procurement and construction management of the
Asmara mine were identified in late 2013. Tendering on the EPCM is
expected in mid-2014 with basic design work beginning soon after the
award of a contract to the successful firm.
- Eritrean mining update: Over the past year the mining economy
of Eritrea has taken great strides with the Bisha mine recently
passing its third anniversary of production. After more than two years
of very successful gold production from the close to surface oxide
gold zone, Nevsun has recently reported that the mine has completed
the copper expansion project on time and produced 36 million pounds of
copper in the fourth quarter of 2013. These concentrates are being trucked to the port of
Massawa where they are transferred to bulk handling ships in the same
way as is planned for the Asmara mine. In addition, construction is
under way on what will be the second operating mine in the country --
the Koka gold mine, part of the Zara project located in north-central
Eritrea. Both projects are fully supported by the government of
Eritrea through a 40-per-cent interest held by the state mining company Enamco,
which is also responsible for a third of all capital and operating costs.
- Appointment of financial adviser: Since publication of the
results of the feasibility study in May, 2013, Sunridge has been
approached by a number of companies interested in acquiring all or
part of the Asmara project or possibly the company. As a result
Sunridge has engaged a Canadian investment banker to act as adviser on
such potential transactions. The company continues discussions with a
number of interested parties. There can be no assurance that any
transaction will occur, or as to the timing, structure or terms of any
transaction.
Asmara project feasibility study summary
The Asmara project feasibility study was completed last
May and demonstrated that the mining of four of the six deposits that
make up the Asmara project (Emba Derho, Adi Nefas, Gupo Gold and
Debarwa) and processing of the ore at a central location near the large
Emba Derho deposit is economically robust with a pretax net present
value of $692-million (using a 10-per-cent discount rate) and with a
pretax internal rate of return of 34 per cent. The study outlines a
three-phase start-up mining operation which would initiate production in
2015 starting with high-grade copper and gold direct shipping ore
production from the Debarwa deposit and heap-leaching of near-surface
gold, followed by supergene copper production, then zinc and copper at a
full production rate of four million tonnes per year. At full production,
the mine will produce an average annual production of 65 million pounds
(29,000 tonnes) copper, 184 million pounds (83,000 tonnes) zinc, 42,000 ounces gold and
one million ounces silver over the first eight years. The life of mine is 17 years.
Important milestones achieved
Over the past two years Sunridge has passed a number of important
milestones as it moves the Asmara project through the development stage
toward production. These are highlighted as follows:
- April, 2012 -- final resource estimates completed on four advanced deposits
on the Asmara project;
- May, 2012 -- prefeasibility Study completed on four advanced deposits on
the Asmara project (NPV10 $555-million);
-
July, 2012 -- Enamco exercised right to purchase 30 per cent of Asmara project;
- October, 2012 -- completed a $10.8-million financing;
-
December, 2012 -- initial resource estimate completed at Adi Rassi
copper-gold deposit (pipeline project);
-
May, 2013 -- feasibility study completed on four advanced deposits on the
Asmara project (NPV10 $692-million);
-
May, 2013 -- initial resource estimate completed at Kodadu gold deposit
(pipeline project);
-
October, 2013 -- completed a $6.5-million financing;
-
December, 2013 -- SEIA submitted, permitting process begins.
Michael Hopley, president and chief executive officer of Sunridge Gold, is the
company's qualified person responsible for the contents of this press
release and has reviewed the information in the release and confirmed
that it is consistent with that provided by the independent qualified
person responsible for the study.
We seek Safe Harbor.
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