It’s business as usual for Perseus Mining Ltd (ASX:PRU, TSX:PRU, OTC:PMNXF) at the 70%-owned Meyas Sand Gold Project (MSGP) in northern Sudan despite weekend media reports of armed conflict in and around the nation’s capital of Khartoum.
International and domestic media outlets reported on instances of armed conflict between the Sudanese military and an influential militia group.
The Meyas Sand Project is in the country’s north, about 75 kilometres south of the border with Egypt and more than 1,000 kilometres north of Khartoum.
While Perseus maintains a small office in Khartoum that services the MSGP, its presence in the capital is minor.
Safety number one priority
In a statement, the company said: “Perseus’s staff, both in Khartoum and on site at MSGP, are safe and no damage has been reported to any of its physical assets or infrastructure.”
Perseus said it was maintaining a “business as usual” approach while actively monitoring the situation, along with a team of international security specialists.
It said: “The safety of all of Perseus’s staff is the number one priority in this situation and Perseus has a range of measures in place to appropriately respond to any change in circumstances.”
“Monitoring situation”
The company’s managing director and CEO Jeff Quartermaine added: “Our Meyas Sand Gold Project, which was acquired nearly 12 months ago, is located more than 1,000km away from Khartoum – more than the distance from London to Berlin or 1.5 times the distance from Sydney to Melbourne.
“All of our people are safe and our physical assets are not damaged by the reported events in Khartoum. We are monitoring the situation very carefully and are prepared to act if necessary.”
Setting for FID
He said that to the end of February 2023, the company had invested about US$23 million in MSGP, preparing for a possible final investment decision (FID) in the second half of 2023.
“As such, our Sudanese exploration and pre-development assets currently comprise a relatively small part of our portfolio.
“All of our gold production activities that currently deliver more than 500,000 ounces of gold per year at an AISC of less than US$1,000 per ounce, take place in West Africa, specifically, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire which are not in any way impacted by the reported events.”
The company will publish its March 2023 quarterly report later this week which Quartermaine said would indicate that the company “is in very good shape and continues to deliver material benefits to all of our stakeholders”.