Announcement • Jan 17
Updated Kiniero Feasibility Study Achieves Increase +46% in Gold Reserves and +89% NPV to USD 322 Million
-- Robex Resources Inc. announced the results of an updated feasibility study for Its Kiniero Gold Project (the Kiniero Gold Project, or the Project) in Conakry, Guinea. Using a base case gold price of USD 1800/oz, the Study demonstrates Kiniero's ability to produce an average of 139,000oz of gold per year at a USD 1,066/oz AISC over the 9-year LoM, with an average gold production of 154,000oz per year in the first six years. Mine plan optimization efforts prioritized a stable, long mine life, rather than peak upfront production. Robex is on track to pour first gold at Kiniero in Fourth Quarter 2025, with construction already underway on the 5 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) processing plant, with a 6Mtpa capacity on early year high oxide blends and associated infrastructure. The company will continue its near-mine exploration efforts to extend the LoM rapidly in conjunction with the annual production. Robex is still in advance discussions with lenders for a debt facility which is expected to close in First Quarter 2025. In addition, with the high prospectivity of property the company will be growing the current production and LoM very rapidly. The company expects to average gold production of nearly 140,000oz of gold a year over the project's 9-year life, with early gold production of 153,000oz a year over the first six years ideally timed to benefit from the current high gold price environment. An additional 25,000m of drilling has been completed and it will be part of an updated MRE to potentially further increase the resources and reserves which should be released in Q2, 2025. The FS was prepared in accordance with Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). The independent NI 43-101 technical report supporting the Kiniero Gold Project Feasibility Study Update will be published on SEDAR at www.sedar.com within the next 45 days. The FS was prepared in accordance with Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"). The Kiniero Gold Project construction has commenced with civil (concrete) works on the process plant, the erection of the Carbon-in Leach/Gravity ("CIL") tanks, and the clearing of the tailings dam basin. The Project engineering is approximately 75% complete, all long lead items have been purchased, and 95% of other equipment has been tendered. The Project is currently on track to pour first gold by the end of calendar year 2025. The Project is located in eastern Guinea in the Kouroussa Prefecture. It is situated 27km southeast of the town of Kouroussa and 546km from Conakry, the capital of Guinea. The Kiniero Gold Project is a 470.48km² exploitation and exploration land package that consists of the adjoining Kiniero exploitation Licence Area and Mansounia exploitation Licence Area. The Kiniero Gold Project is one of the largest gold licences in Guinea. Kiniero gold deposits, located in the prolific gold-producing Siguiri Basin, were discovered in the early 1900s and were subsequently explored until 2002 when gold production began under the ownership of SEMAFO Inc. and its subsidiary SEMAFO Guinée SA. The historical Kiniero gold mine comprised an open pit mining operation that produced 418,000 ounces of gold during its 12- year operational history. The mine was placed on care and maintenance in early 2014. Given the strong exploration potential, a combination of near plant brownfields infill and known extension, as well as greenfield large-scale targets, Robex is targeting (i) the discovery of Mineral Resources across the Kiniero exploration permit area over the next few years, and (ii) the conversion of Mineral Resources into Mineral Reserves. An extensive drilling program is ongoing on the numerous identified deposits to increase the resource base and extend the LoM at Kiniero predominately through extending the drilling density at depth and along known strike extensions. Since the beginning of the construction, Robex has been committed to involve village communities in the mine's development, as well as exploring sustainable power energy source to reduce and limit its environmental footprint. The property is located within the Kiniero Gold District of the Siguiri Basin, which is situated in north-eastern Guinea, extending into central Mali. Geologically, the Siguiri Basin comprises a portion of the West Africa Birimian Greenstone Belt, including intrusive volcanics (ultramafics to intermediate) and sediments largely deposited through the period 2.13 Ga to 2.07 Ga. The volcanic and sedimentary lithologies comprise fine-grained sedimentary rocks (shales and siltstones), with some intercalated volcanic rocks. Sandstone-greywacke tectonic corridors have been preferentially altered and locally silicified, supporting extensive brittle fracture networks. These in turn have provided host environments for ascending mineralized hydrothermal fluids. The deposits located on the property are associated with the Proterozoic Birimian orogeny of West Africa. Most gold mineralization in the West African Craton is shear-zone-hosted and structurally controlled, with lithology having a minor, local influence. The mineralization developed in the Kiniero Gold District conforms to this general style of mineralization. The process plant design is based on a metallurgical flowsheet developed for flexible operation between the various types of ore while maintaining the throughput and gold recovery. Ore will be processed on-site, at a centrally located processing facility near the mining areas. The gold will be recovered in a beneficiation plant that has been designed to process a blend of oxide, laterite, transition, and fresh ores from various ore deposits. Oxide and upper transition ores (soft) require less comminution energy than laterite and fresh ore (hard). However, they present other challenges in handling due to the sticky nature of oxide ore types, justifying dedicated crushing devices for soft and hard ores. The process plant design has been based on a nominal capacity of 5.0 Mtpa with 35% fresh in mill feed to 6.0 Mtpa with 18% fresh ore in feed. The flowsheet includes two crushing circuits, semi-autogenous, ball grinding, and pebble crushing milling (SABC), dual CIL circuits, split Anglo-American Research Laboratories ("AARL") elution, gold electrowinning, and carbon regeneration that are well proven in the industry. The Project benefits from good infrastructure close to the site, and a limited relocation requirement as there are no villages on the site. Existing mining infrastructure will be refurbished with minimal additional infrastructure required.