Cora Gold (AIM:CORA) said an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment ('ESIA') for its Sanankoro Gold Project continues ‘on time and on budget’ with completion expected for 2021.
The West African-focused firm said a Terms of Reference was submitted to the regulating authority for Environmental Permitting to commence the ESIA Process which will be conducted by Digby Wells at the project located in the Yanfolila Gold Belt in Southern Mali.
An ESIA is considered a critically important part of developing a mining project. It can enhance the mining sector’s contribution to sustainable and inclusive development while reducing negative consequences for underprivileged groups and the natural environment.
Cora previously worked with environmental consultancy Digby Wells to complete an initial environmental and social screening study in 2019 as part of the Project's Scoping Study.
The ESIA process will establish and quantify potential environmental and socio-economic impacts associated with the Project which will then be used to inform a comprehensive and meaningful management programme in consultation with the host communities.
Shares in Cora Gold have traded strongly over the past three months from 5.50p in June and opened this morning 1.89% higher at 13.5p following the announcement.
Baseline water and air quality monitoring programmes have been established at the project with several rounds of sampling completed and representative ore samples have been shipped to a lab in Australia for geochemical characterisation test work, the group said.
Socio-economic studies are also underway in the local communities including focus group meetings and household surveys while the group is developing certain Environmental and Social design criteria to integrate the best practice into its engineering and project design.
"I am delighted to report that the Digby Wells team has picked up where they left off with the Scoping Study,” said Bert Monro, Chief Executive of Cora Gold.
He added, “We appointed them a little over three months ago and in challenging conditions their team has been actively carrying out, with the support of the Cora field team, a number of parallel monitoring programmes and community surveys.”
“The ESIA is expected to be completed in the middle of 2021 aligning it with our plans to move Sanankoro towards development as quickly as possible."
Cora remains focused on resource growth and then the delivery of the Definitive Feasibility Study ('DFS') at the Sanankoro Gold Project before the end of 2021.
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