The Nyanzaga Project, a JV between OreCorp Ltd and Acaia Mining Plc, is a large scale gold project utilsing a concurrent open pit and underground operation to produce c. 213koz pa over an initial 12 year mine life.
In November 2016 orelogy was commissioned by OreCorp to undertake a strategic review of the combined open pit / underground schedule generated for the Scoping Study. This was primarily aimed at determining the optimal timing of the underground development prior to commencing the PFS.
orelogy determined that value benefit of bringing the underground forward from the assumed Year 3 start-up always out-weighed the additional capital of development from a higher level, including the fact that the capital was also brought forward. Exactly how much it should be brought forward was a trade-off between overall project NPV and the impact of increased initial capital requirements and an associated longer payback period. This trade-off was planned to be undertaken as part of the PFS.
