News

December 22, 2008

Perseus Livens Christmas Spirits

By Our Man In Oz

If Mark Calderwood finds nothing under his Christmas tree on Thursday morning he will not be complaining. As chief executive of the Australian-based, African-focused gold exploration company, Perseus Mining, Calderwood thinks Christmas might have come early in the form of “very forgiving” ore at the Ayanfuri project in Ghana. Sounding appropriately Christian in the festive season, “forgiving” ore liberates its gold easily. So easily in the case of Ayanfuri that Calderwood and his team are spending the holiday season crunching numbers to discover exactly how much they will save in processing costs, starting with a much smaller crushing mill, less electricity, fewer consumables and the elimination of entire sections of a conventional gold plant. From a per-ounce production cost in the US$430 range the new back-of-the envelope estimate is in the low US$300 range.

In Australian slang terms, even a legendary character known as Blind Freddie (and his dog) could see that saving around US$100/ounce on production costs has a dramatic effect on financial calculations, not to mention the potential impact on a company’s share price. “We’re certainly looking at some major benefits,” Calderwood said when Minesite’s Man in Oz spoke with him a few days before Christmas. “Precisely how much we’re likely to save should be known in a few weeks, but a starting point in...