Page 49 - pd292-Apr21-mag-web

Emerald sparkles against the odds

Emerald is on track to finish construction
of the Okvau mine and processing plant in
time for first gold pour later this quarter

ess than three months before the job of building this thing in one of the on a boat. I would think anybody starting
Lhighly anticipated first gold pour at most difficult periods the world has ever a project in these last few months would
Okvau, Emerald Resources NL manag- seen. We built Bonikro at the back end of be hitting some pretty serious problems
ing director Morgan Hart has paid tribute a civil war, but I think this one has been around transportation.”
to the “absolute geniuses” overseeing the harder.” Mining contractor MACA Ltd also has
construction of Cambodia’s first commer- Okvau is forecast to produce 105,000- about 80% of its equipment on site fol-
cial mining operation. 110,000 ozpa for a remarkably low AISC lowing the start of mining at Okvau last
Emerald is on track to achieve first of $US754/oz, a number which Hart be- December. Hart, Evans and other mem-
production later this quarter, with the lieves is still “quite conservative” consid- bers of Emerald’s board and manage-
company reporting that more than 78% ering the upside already observed in ar- ment have a long association with MACA
of the planned construction work had eas such as grade control, gold recovery dating back to their days at Equigold and
been “spent and committed” at the time and some of the pricing, including more Regis.
of print. expensive fuel and power costs com- Hart praised the on-site MACA team
Remarkably, the development timeline pared to what was estimated in the DFS. for their efforts thus far in training up
remains on time and on budget despite Assuming a $US1,700/oz gold price, many of the locals for key roles such as
the challenges associated with building Okvau is set to generate a pre-tax NPV driving trucks and excavators at the up-
a greenfields project during an unprec- of $US486 million and IRR of 95%. coming Okvau operation.
edented global pandemic. “We’re going to be 105,000-110,000 “They’ve been really pleased with
Led by chief operating officer Mick Ev- ozpa producer in a few months’ time for the proficiency of the Cambodian peo-
ans – who oversaw the construction of a cash cost of about $US750/oz in a gold ple,” Hart said. “When we were in Africa
Bonikro for Equigold and Moolart Well, market that is $US1,700/oz and probably building Bonikro, we found it really tough
Garden Well and Rosemont for Regis going higher,” Hart said. “It’s not hard to getting the right operators, but here in
Resources Ltd – Emerald’s in-house see that we’re going to make a hell of a Cambodia there is a much higher level of
development team has spent consider- lot of money out of this project.” competency and the proficiency of some
able time in Cambodia over the past Emerald is measuring the construction of the locals is just incredible.”
year ensuring the $US98 million project progress at Okvau on the capital spent With cash soon to be flowing from
will churn out its first gold bar in late Q2 to date, with Hart indicating that “over Okvau, Hart is already thinking about
2021. $US70 million is already out the door in putting some of that money back into the
Given all of the above projects were cheques” with a further $US6-7 million ground, particularly below the pit where
built on time and on budget, Hart said committed in fixed-price contracts. previous intercepts of 15m @ 11.92 g/t
it was no surprise Evans and his team Some 92% of the equipment is already from 143m, 8m @ 19.98 g/t from 172m,
were about to achieve the same with the on site or in Cambodia, with another 13m @ 7.16 g/t from 271m and 1m @
2 mtpa Okvau operation. 2% in transit at the time of print and the 34.9 g/t have been recorded.
“Mick is an absolute genius and he remaining 6% (laboratory equipment, “Right now there’s nothing that chang-
surrounds himself with absolute geni- oxygen generating system, switchrooms es from top to bottom in this deposit in
uses who have really had to do it tough,” and the gold room package) set to be terms of geology, geochemistry or lithol-
Hart told Paydirt. shipped imminently from ports in Aus- ogies, so we expect that as long as that
“These guys have spent extraordinar- tralia and South Africa. diorite keeps going at depth we’ve got
ily long periods of time in country with- “We’ve had a bit of a win with some of every chance that we can keep stacking
out being able to see their families. As the transportation issues that have come up these zones of mineralisation,” Hart
a shareholder and a stakeholder in the about because of COVID,” Hart said. said.
company, you’ve got to give nothing but “The last 3-4 months have been particu- – Michael Washbourne
credit to those guys for the role they’ve larly horrific with probably only a quarter
taken on and the amount of pride they of the boats on the water than was there
have in their work to see this through. was this time last year and the prices
“Our team has done an outstanding have gone up 4-5 times to get something

aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT aPRIL 2021 Page 49