South African gold company, Perseus Mining, has marked another step towards commercial gold production at its Ayanfuri project, in Ghana, as two 15-year mining leases were granted.

The two mining leases over the 5,3-million ounce central Ayanfuri gold project, covered a total area of 93,13 km2.

Perseus said in a statement on Thursday that the granting of the leases left the Ghanaian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permit as the final approval that was required before construction at the project could start.

The developer has previously reported that it would initially spend up to $30-million on the plant design, the purchase of long-lead items, and the initial site construction to enable rapid project implementation, once the EPA approval was obtained.

The Ayanfuri project was expected to start commercial production by the third quarter of 2011.