Focused on Arabian-Nubian Shield HOME ABOUT US PROJECTS NEWS INVESTOR INFO CONTACT US You are here Home » Projects » Saudi Arabia » Jibal Qutman EL Jibal Qutman EL The Jibal Qutman Exploration Licence ("EL") is located in the central southern region of the Arabian-Nubian Shield and covers an area of 99.9km2. The EL overlies part of the prospective Nabitah-Tathlith Fault Zone, a 300km-long structure with over 40 gold occurrences and ancient gold mines. KEFI Minerals completed a Pre-Feasibility Study (“PFS”) on the Jibal Qutman Project in 2014. The PFS demonstrated a profitable carbon-in-leach (“CIL”) operation with All-in Costs (including operating costs, capital expenditure and closure costs) under $1,000 per ounce. Exploration drilling subsequently identified additional oxide gold mineralisation that is amenable to heap leach (“HL”) processing. Accordingly, the Company subsequently evaluated producing gold via an open cut, HL operation. The HL approach has the advantages of speeding up the potential development timetable and lowering capital requirements to potentially as little as $3 million for KEFI’s equity contribution to initial development costs. Given the established regional prospectivity for shallow oxide gold deposits, EL Applications have been submitted for four additional areas near Jibal Qutman. Information on Jibal Qutman's geology and mineralogy is available in this conference poster. Mineral Resource Estimates for Jibal Qutman. Drilling undertaken since the EL grant in 2012 has identified gold resources in seven areas - Main Zone, West Zone, South Zone, South Zone Southeast Extension (“SZSE”), 3K Hill Zone, 4K Hill Zone and Red Hill. In May 2015, KEFI released an updated Mineral Resource estimate of 28.4 million tonnes at 0.80g/t gold, containing 733,045 ounces for Jibal Qutman. This represents a 48% or 237,851 ounce increase over the March 2014 resource estimate for Jibal Qutman. As summarised in the table below, the majority of the Mineral Resource is now in the Indicated category. Category Tonnes (millions) Gold (g/t) Contained Gold ('000 ounces) Oxide Indicated 8.3 0.86 229 Inferred 2.8 0.64 58 Sub-Total 11.1 0.80 287 Sulfide Indicated 9.7 0.86 269 Inferred 7.6 0.72 176 Sub-Total 17.3 0.80 446 Oxide + Sulfide Indicated 18.0 0.86 498 Inferred 10.4 0.70 235 Grand Total 28.4 0.80 733 The oxide gold mineralisation contained with the above Mineral Resource is estimated to total 11.1 million tonnes at 0.80g/t gold, containing 287,000 ounces. Preliminary Economic Assessment for Jibal Qutman HL Operation Metallurgical test work has confirmed that Jibal Qutman oxide mineralisation is amenable to HL processing and that agglomeration is not likely to be required apart from the South Zone deposit. The key outcomes from a Preliminary Economic Assessment for Jibal Qutman completed in May 2015 were: 1.5Mtpa HL operation; Gold production c. 140,000 ounces over an initial mine life of four to five years; Oxide open-pit optimisation studies show a potential mineable resource of 6.6 million tonnes at 0.95g/t gold, for c. 200,000 contained ounces; Waste:ore ratio of 2:1; Average gold recovery of 70%; Cash operating cost of c. $600/ounce; and Capital expenditure of c. $30 million. Combined with the potential for development loans for up to 75% of capex requirements, it may be possible for KEFI to fund its share of the equity portion for less than $5 million in equity. Location of Jibal Qutman Prospects Location of ELAs near Jibal Qutman The Jibal Qutman deposit: first notes on a new gold discovery in the Arabian Shield [2.5Mb PDF] ABOUT US Strategy Board of Directors Senior Management Corporate Governance Company History PROJECTS Overview Saudi Arabia Jibal Qutman Hawiah EL Country Info Ethiopia Tulu Kapi Overview Tulu Kapi Resources/Reserves Tulu Kapi DFS Photo Galleries Tulu Kapi Hawiah Jibal Qutman EL NEWS Overview Announcements Circulars & Notices Shareholding Notices Annual Reports Financial Reports Presentations Video/Multimedia Webcasts Subscribe to Updates INVESTOR INFO Overview AIM Rule 26 Capital Structure Analyst Coverage Investors Q & A Subscribe to updates CONTACT US Copyright © 2021, Kefi Minerals