In June 2011, Franco-Nevada acquired an effective 1.5% revenue royalty on Perseus Mining’s Central Ashanti Gold Project (CAGP) in Ghana. The royalty rate is 3% for the resources which were known to exist on the mining licenses when Perseus acquired the property. The royalty covers the entire mining lease which hosts all of the currently proposed open pits.

The Central Ashanti Gold Project is located on the prolific Ahanti gold belt and Perseus has rapidly increased reserves and resources on the property in the last few years. Reserves on the property are currently 3.3 million ounces and there are an additional 1.7 million ounces of Inferred Resources. The project consists of a series of open-pit deposits and Perseus states that they are aiming to add 500,000 ounces of reserves each year for the foreseeable future as well as make at least one new discovery each year.

The current mine plan at CAGP contemplates a throughput of 7.9MTPA with average gold production of 290,000 ounces annually by Perseus’ fiscal year 2014. Capital costs for the project are expected to be $175 million and average cash costs are expected to be $551/oz. Mining has commenced and the first gold pour was announced on August 22, 2011.