ESTABLISHING THE KOJINA GOLD DEPOSIT AS A VIABLE MINING VENTURE FOR SAMEVA LTD, GHANA

ABSTRACT Assessment of viability of an ore deposit depends on the accurate estimation of the quantity and quality of the commodity, which is a function of the sample data quality. SAMEVA Limited, a fully owned Ghanaian company, wants to acquire Kojina Gold deposit as an investment opportunity in the gold industry of Ghana. The decision to invest in the mining industry comes with huge capital requirement and the associated risks are very high. The major objectives with regards to evaluating the viability of the deposit are; to define appropriate mineralized zone based on available drill core data, use an appropriate estimation method to create a model that accurately predicts grade and tonnes and finally use a suitable financial model to establish the viability or otherwise of the Kojina project. An Ordinary krigged geostatistical model was used to estimate the quantity and quality of gold within the deposit based primarily on diamond drill holes. The Net Present Value (discounted cash flow) method of financial analysis was used to arrive at the investment decision on the Kojina deposit. Capital and Operating Costs estimates used were based on benchmarking of adjacent mine operations within the catchment area of Kojina. Using appropriately planned drilling and representative sampling as well as predominant use of diamond core gives more accurate information with no contamination and has structural orientation which allows for better geologic and structural mapping therefore helping define the mineralization zones more accurately. The mineralization zone defined based on reverse circulation holes gave 37,413,998 tonnes at 1.47g/t whereas that based on the diamond holes gave 26,674,888 tonnes at 1.57g/t. Again, based on the more accurate deductions from diamond holes, the NetPresent value of the project was estimated at USD 187,796,325 with a payback period of three years.