Production
Located in Ghana, West Africa, the Asanko Gold Mine is a joint venture with Gold Fields Ltd (JSE, NYSE: GFI). Galiano and Gold Fields both have a 45% economic interest in the mine, with the Government of Ghana holding the remaining 10%. Galiano is the manager and operator.
The Asanko Gold Mine is a multi-deposit complex, with two main deposits, Nkran and Esaase, and multiple satellite deposits, situated on the Asankrangwa Gold Belt, and a 5Mtpa carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing plant. Gold production commenced in January 2016 and commercial production was declared on April 1, 2016.
In 2019, the mine exceeded the upper-end of guidance with record gold production of 251,044 gold ounces. In 2020 the mine is targeting approximately 245,000 ounces of gold production at all-in sustaining costs of approximately $1,150/oz (100% basis).
Approximately 2,600 people are employed at the mine. 99% of the total workforce are Ghanaians, of which around 53% are from our local communities.
The Asanko Gold Mine has a downstream tailing storage facility, further details are available here: Asanko TSF Disclosure
Geology
The Nkran deposit is located within the Kumasi Basin on the "Asankrangwa gold belt". The basin is bound to the south by the Ashanti Fault/Shear and the Bibiani shear to the north. The Asankrangwa gold belt expresses itself as a complex of northeast trending shear zones situated along the central axis of the Kumasi Basin. The Nkran deposit is located on a jog along the regional Nkran Shear, which is a zone of about 15 km in width and may be traced on a northeast to southwest trend for a distance of some 150 km. This is one of several major northeast trending shears/structures that bisect the Kumasi Basin/Asankrangwa Gold Belt.
The regional/local (Kumasi Basin) geological setting is heavily faulted and consists of an isoclinally folded sequence of metasediments, dominated by turbiditic sequences of greywackes and shales, intercolated with rare andesites and volcanoclastics, previously described as greywackes, phyllites, argillites and shales.