Caledonia Mining Corporation, angling to become a multi-asset gold producer in Zimbabwe, says a new feasibility study on its Bilboes Gold Project, expected to become the countryls largest gold asset, will be published early next year.
The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)-listed group, which has a secondary listing on the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX), owns Matabeleland South Province-based Blanket Mine, one of Zimbabwe's major gold mining assets.
It is also the proprietor of the Motapa gold project situated adjacent to the Bilboes mine in Matabeleland North Province, Maligreen Goldfields, and Glen Hulme projects in Gweru, in the Midlands Province.
In 2022, Caledonia acquired the Bilboes project for US$53,3 million from businessman Mr Victor Gapare.
The mining group is on record saying that judging from its findings of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA), Bilboes holds huge potential to become a transformative asset and Zimbabwe's biggest gold mining operation producing, 150 000 ounces annually.
The PEA confirmed the results of a feasibility study carried out by the previous owner of the Bilboes, which detailed strong potential from a potentially luctrative open-pit project.
"The company intends to publish a new feasibility study for the project in the first quarter of 2025," Caledonia said in its latest update.
Caledonia says the project may have its first gold pour by 2028, according to the firm's PEA. The Bilboes project is expected to produce 1,52 million ounces of the yellow metal over a 10-year mine life.
"On June 3, 2024, Caledonia published a new technical report for Bilboes, which superseded prior technical reports and technical report summaries for Bilboes.
"The new Bilboes technical report was a preliminary economic assessment prepared in accordance with Canada's National Instrument 43-101 and did not comply with S-K 1300.
"The purpose of the technical report summary filed yesterday is to report mineral resources for the project in accordance with S-K 1300, to present the results of an initial assessment for the implementation of open pit mining to recover the gold mineralisation and to propose additional work required for feasibility level studies," said the mining group.
Meanwhile, gold output at Blanket Mine in the nine months to September this year was 56 815 ounces up from 55 244oz in the comparable period in 2023.
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Caledonia has reiterated its production guidance for this year at between 74 000 and 78 000oz at Blanket.
Gold is Zimbabwe's biggest single export. Fidelity Gold Refinery, the country's sole buyer of gold produced locally, said production reached 32 tonnes in the first 11 months of this year.
During the period under review, the artisanal and small-scale mining sector delivered 20,3 tonnes while primary producers or the large-scale miners produced 11,7 tonnes.
Last year, Zimbabwe produced 30,1 tonnes of the bullion and this year the Government targets 35 tonnes.
