Namdini has been making headlines in the past 18 months as Cardinal has advanced the project through to the latest PEA milestone. Along the way, it has brought in Gold Fields as an investor and continued to show off high-grade intercepts from an aggressive drill campaign.

Cardinal evaluated three production throughput rates in the PEA - 4.5 million tonnes per annum, 7Mtpa and 9.5Mtpa - using Namdini's indicated and inferred resource of 4.1 million ounces at 1.1 grams per tonne gold and metallurgical recoveries of 90% for oxides and 86% for fresh ore.

The scenarios envisaged average annual gold production of 159,000 ounces per annum to 330,000ozpa at an all-in sustaining cost of US$701 per ounce to $794/oz.  

While all resulted in positive returns, the 9.5Mtpa scenario came with the highest post-tax (5% discount) net present value - $649 million - at the same time as requiring the most upfront capital at $426 million and providing the shortest mine life (14 years). All scenarios used a $1300/oz gold price. 

The smallest option required $275 million of development capital and came with a mine life of 27 years at the 4.5Mtpa rate. 

Cardinal said the preferred scale of development is to be selected following completion of feasibility studies.

In addition, it is weighing up the option of a phased expansion at Namdini commencing at 4.5Mtpa. 

With drilling continuing, Cardinal plans to update the resource base this quarter.

It is also working on a prefeasibility study that will further flesh out Namdini's metallurgy, the higher-grade starter pit, plant design and costings and mining and processing costs.  

The company's stock was down 5.6% yesterday to A50.5c.