LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Pan African Resources announced the inaugural gold pour at its Elikhulu tailings retreatment plant on Thursday.
The AIM-traded firm said the construction of Elikhulu was completed ahead of schedule and within its ZAR 1.74bn budget.

It said the project's commissioning phase was scheduled to be completed in September, with steady-state production of around 55,000 ounces of gold per annum, at an all-in sustaining production cost of between $650 and $700 per ounce.

As it had previously announced, the incorporation into Elikhulu of the Evander Tailings Retreatment Plant, which has a throughput of 200,000 tonnes per month, was on track and scheduled for completion in December, after which the enlarged Elikhulu plant was forecast to process throughput of 1.2 million tonnes per month and was expected to produce approximately 70,000 ounces of gold per annum.

Elikhulu's construction phase employed up to 1,769 people, and would directly employ more than 350 permanent employees and contractors during its operational life of 14 years, Pan African claimed.

During its construction phase, more than ZAR 162m was paid as preferential procurement to community contractors for services rendered during that phase of the project to date.

Over the life of the project, Elikhulu was expected to produce 674,000 ounces of gold with a value of approximately ZAR 11.5bn at a gold price of ZAR 550,000 per kilogram, inject ZAR 5.3bn into the South African economy for sourced goods and services, and contribute an estimated ZAR 1.3bn to the South African revenue authorities in taxes and royalties.

"The completion of Elikhulu's construction and the inaugural gold pour, ahead of schedule and in line with the project budget, is a further significant milestone as we deliver into our strategy of repositioning the Group as a low-cost, long-life gold producer," said Pan African Resources chief executive officer Cobus Loots.

"Elikhulu is delivering much needed new employment opportunities and is an economic boost for our local communities and for South Africa's Mpumalanga province."

Loots said the "professional way" in which the project was executed, delivering into all milestones in a "safe and sustainable" manner, demonstrated the company's ability to conceptualise, plan and complete "very substantial" growth projects.

"We expect Elikhulu to be a flagship operation within our low-cost, long-life asset base, and we will continue to focus on improving and expanding our portfolio in a sustainable manner to the benefit of all stakeholders."

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