Asante Gold Corp. is reviewing a mining technique, Sustainable Mining by Drilling, for use at its Kubi gold project in Ghana.

The company said March 11 that Sustainable Mining by Drilling, which Anaconda Mining Inc. is developing and commercializing, is a two-stage drilling method that enables direct mining of narrow deposits using technology proven in other industries.

According to Anaconda, the technology reduces the cost to extract ore by 50% over conventional underground narrow mining techniques, places the operator in a safe location on the surface, can access areas not open to conventional mining, reduces the environmental footprint, and bypasses the crushing and grinding circuits.

Asante President and CEO Douglas MacQuarrie said the new technique also slashes development time and capital required to take near-surface gold deposits to production, and the Kubi gold resource appears to be well-suited for this technique.

In April 2018, the company said it was seeking a joint venture partner for Kubi.