LYCOPODIUM LIMITED — Capital/Financing Update 2018

Nov 5, 2018

Press Release

6 November 2018

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West African Resources Awards Engineering Contract Mill Package Order Placed

Gold developer West African Resources Limited (ASX, TSXV: WAF) (West African or the Company) is pleased to advise that it has taken key steps to advance the development of its 90% owned Sanbrado Gold Project (Sanbrado).

Highlights

• Awarded EPCM contract to Lycopodium, first gold scheduled for second half of 2020

• Awarded mill package to Outotec, order placed for 4MW SAG and ball mills

• Key owner’s construction team positions filled

• Construction of stage one 210 room camp started

• Box cut for underground access started

• Open-pit and underground contractors site visits completed

• $35.4m cash at bank, no debt at 30 September 2018

Managing Director Richard Hyde commented:

“The award of the EPCM contract, the order of the mill package, and the key construction team hires keeps West African Resources on track to pour gold at Sanbrado in the second half of 2020.

“Infill drilling continues, which is expected to increase the current underground mine life past 5 years. “Optimisation studies to be completed by Q1 2019 will include resource and reserve updates, and planned higher process plant throughput rates resulting in increased annual gold production.”

EPCM Contract

West African recently conducted a competitive tender process for the engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) of the Sanbrado process plant and associated infrastructure. Following a detailed evaluation of bids, West African has signed a conditional Letter of Intent with Australian engineering company Lycopodium Ltd (ASX: LYL) (Lycopodium) for the EPCM contract. The conditional Letter of Intent relates to the engineering and procurement (EP) portions for a new 2 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) carbon-in-leach (CIL) treatment facility and other supporting infrastructure to be constructed at Sanbrado. It is expected that the EPCM contract will be signed by the end of 2018, following agreement of the final terms and conditions and West African Resources board approval.

Principal Office: 14 Southbourne Street, Scarborough WA 6019, Western Australia T: + 61 8 9481 7344 F: + 61 8 9481 7355 E: info@westafricanresources.com www.westafricanresources.com ACN: 121 539 375

West African Resources Limited

Lycopodium is an Australian-headquartered engineering and project management consultancy that has completed the construction of more than a dozen gold development projects in West Africa since 2009. Lycopodium has a successful track record in Burkina Faso, recently delivering EPCM projects at the 3Mtpa Hounde and 4Mtpa Karma Upgrade gold projects for Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV), 3Mtpa Natougou gold project for Semafo (TSX: SMF), 4Mtpa Bissa and 8Mtpa Bouly gold projects for Nordgold and currently building the 2.5Mtpa Wahgnion gold project for Teranga Gold Corp. (TSX: TGZ).

Order of Critical Path Long Lead Mills

During the September quarter the Company also conducted a competitive tender process for the supply and delivery of the SAG and ball mill package for Sanbrado. Following the evaluation of tenders, the Company selected Outotec to supply the 4MW semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill and 4MW ball mill, principally due to their extensive experience with grinding mills especially in the size range required for Sanbrado.

Outotec is a global mineral processing company that has extensive experience manufacturing and delivering over 200 grinding mills to sites worldwide over the last 20 years. More than 40 of these mills have been supplied to projects in West Africa. Outotec’s recent mill deliveries in West Africa include Endeavour Mining’s Ity (Côte d'Ivoire) and Hounde (Burkina Faso) gold projects and the Toro Gold’s Mako gold project (Senegal).

Optimisation Update

Optimisation of the process plant flowsheet has continued to advance since completion of the updated Feasibility Study in June (FS). The Company has confirmed that by increasing the size and power of both the SAG and ball mills to the levels being supplied by Outotec the throughput rate while feeding higher grade fresh (hard) ore can be increased to maintain a minimum feed rate of 250tph (2Mtpa), up from 200tph (1.6Mtpa) detailed in the June FS. For Sanbrado this mill package is will deliver a higher throughput than nameplate on a blend of oxide and fresh material. Optimisation of the mine schedule and plant design will incorporate the larger mill package and is on track to be completed by Q1 2019. A significant improvement in project economics versus the FS is expected by delivering more gold in the early years of the operation from an accelerated mine schedule with a relatively small change in the processing-plant capital requirements.

Owners Team

During the September quarter the Company hired a group of highly experienced expatriates for key positions in WAF’s owner’s construction team for Sanbrado. All new employees have previous gold mine start-up experience in Burkina Faso and are multi-lingual. The following key positions have been filled:

• General Manager - Ouagadougou

• Construction Manager

• Earthworks Manager

• Contracts Manager

• Safety and First Aid Officer/Registered Nurse

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West African Resources Limited

Early Works

The Company has started constructing the first stage of the 210-room camp at the Sanbrado project site. The initial 60 rooms and common facilities for use during the construction phase are due to be completed by late March 2019.

Earthworks have commenced on the box cut for the underground access, which is being completed by the owner’s team using locally hired equipment. This is forecast to deliver significant cost savings against the June FS, which envisaged outsourcing the box cut to external engineers and earthmoving contractors.

Mining Contracts

Open-pit and underground mining contractors completed site visits in during October. The Company is currently reviewing contract bids and will short list candidates before going into a final round of negotiations. The Company expects to award the underground mining contract during Q4 2018, and the open-pit contract during Q1 2019.

Photo 1: Stage One Camp Area Clearing

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West African Resources Limited

Photo 2: Box cut establishment

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Updated Schedule

The updated development schedule to first gold production is presented below.

Figure 1: Sanbrado Gold Project Development Schedule

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West African Resources Limited

About West African Resources

West African Resources Limited (ASX, TSXV: WAF) recently announced the results of its updated Feasibility Study for the Sanbrado Gold Project in Burkina Faso. The study envisages an initial 11-year mine life, including 4.5 years of underground mining, and showed a 76% increase in Probable Reserves to 1.6 million ounces (20.4Mt at 2.4g/t gold). The project will have average annual production over the first 5 years of mine life of 211,000 ounces gold and a 16 month post-tax pay back on US$185 million pre-production capital costs. Project economics are robust, with AISC of US$551/oz over first 5 years and US$640 over life of mine. The project returns a pre-tax NPV5% of US$567m (A$754m) and pre-tax IRR of 62%, and Post-tax NPV5% of US$405m (A$540m) and post-tax IRR of 49%. Mineralisation is open at depth and along strike and therefore value add drilling on the project is ongoing, with further resource and reserve updates expected later in Q1 2019.

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Forward Looking Information

This news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian and Australian securities legislation, including information relating to West African's future financial or operating performance may be deemed “forward looking”. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that West African expects to occur, are “forward-looking statements”. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects”, “does not expect”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “does not anticipate”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “projects”, “potential”, “scheduled”, “forecast”, “budget” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will”, “would”, “may”, “could”, “should” or “might” occur. All such forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of the relevant management as of the date such statements are made and are subject to important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond West African’s ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In the case of West African, these facts include their anticipated operations in future periods, planned exploration and development of its properties, and plans

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West African Resources Limited

related to its business and other matters that may occur in the future. This information relates to analyses and other information that is based on expectations of future performance and planned work programs. Statements concerning mineral resource estimates may also be deemed to constitute forward-looking information to the extent that they involve estimates of the mineralization that will be encountered if a mineral property is developed.

Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation: exploration hazards and risks; risks related to exploration and development of natural resource properties; uncertainty in West African’s ability to obtain funding; gold price fluctuations; recent market events and conditions; risks related to the uncertainty of mineral resource calculations and the inclusion of inferred mineral resources in economic estimation; risks related to governmental regulations; risks related to obtaining necessary licenses and permits; risks related to their business being subject to environmental laws and regulations; risks related to their mineral properties being subject to prior unregistered agreements, transfers, or claims and other defects in title; risks relating to competition from larger companies with greater financial and technical resources; risks relating to the inability to meet financial obligations under agreements to which they are a party; ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel; and risks related to their directors and officers becoming associated with other natural resource companies which may give rise to conflicts of interests. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect West African’s forward-looking information. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking information.

West African’s forward-looking information is based on the reasonable beliefs, expectations and opinions of their respective management on the date the statements are made, and West African does not assume any obligation to update forward looking information if circumstances or management’s beliefs, expectations or opinions change, except as required by law. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. For a complete discussion with respect to West African, please refer to West African’s financial statements and related MD&A, all of which are filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Page: 6

Press Release

6 November 2018

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West African Resources Awards Engineering Contract Mill Package Order Placed

Gold developer West African Resources Limited (ASX, TSXV: WAF) (West African or the Company) is pleased to advise that it has taken key steps to advance the development of its 90% owned Sanbrado Gold Project (Sanbrado).

Highlights

• Awarded EPCM contract to Lycopodium, first gold scheduled for second half of 2020

• Awarded mill package to Outotec, order placed for 4MW SAG and ball mills

• Key owner’s construction team positions filled

• Construction of stage one 210 room camp started

• Box cut for underground access started

• Open-pit and underground mining contractors site visits completed

• $35.4m cash at bank, no debt at 30 September 2018

Managing Director Richard Hyde commented:

“The award of the EPCM contract, order of the mill package, and the key construction team hires keeps West African Resources on track to pour gold at Sanbrado in the second half of 2020.

“Infill and step-down drilling continues, which is expected to increase the current underground mine life past 5 years.

“Optimisation studies to be completed by Q1 2019 will include resource and reserve updates, and planned higher process plant throughput rates resulting in increased annual gold production.”

EPCM Contract

West African recently conducted a competitive tender process for the engineering, procurement, and construction management (EPCM) of the Sanbrado process plant and associated infrastructure. Following a detailed evaluation of bids, West African has signed a conditional Letter of Intent with Australian engineering company Lycopodium Ltd (ASX: LYL) (Lycopodium) for the EPCM contract. The conditional Letter of Intent relates to the engineering and procurement (EP) portions for a new 2 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) carbon-in-leach (CIL) treatment facility and other supporting infrastructure to be constructed at Sanbrado. It is expected that the EPCM contract will be signed by the end of 2018, following agreement of the final terms and conditions and West African Resources board approval.

Principal Office: 14 Southbourne Street, Scarborough WA 6019, Western Australia T: + 61 8 9481 7344 F: + 61 8 9481 7355 E: info@westafricanresources.com www.westafricanresources.com ACN: 121 539 375

West African Resources Limited

Lycopodium is an Australian-headquartered engineering and project management consultancy that has completed the construction of more than a dozen gold development projects in West Africa since 2009. Lycopodium has a successful track record in Burkina Faso, recently delivering EPCM projects at the 3Mtpa Hounde and 4Mtpa Karma Upgrade gold projects for Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV), 3Mtpa Natougou gold project for Semafo (TSX: SMF), 4Mtpa Bissa and 8Mtpa Bouly gold projects for Nordgold and currently building the 2.5Mtpa Wahgnion gold project for Teranga Gold Corp. (TSX: TGZ).

Order of Critical Path Long Lead Mills

During the September quarter the Company also conducted a competitive tender process for the supply and delivery of the SAG and ball mill package for Sanbrado. Following the evaluation of tenders, the Company selected Outotec to supply the 4MW semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill and 4MW ball mill, principally due to their extensive experience with grinding mills especially in the size range required for Sanbrado.

Outotec is a global mineral processing company that has extensive experience manufacturing and delivering over 200 grinding mills to sites worldwide over the last 20 years. More than 40 of these mills have been supplied to projects in West Africa. Outotec’s recent mill deliveries in West Africa include Endeavour Mining’s Ity (Côte d'Ivoire) and Hounde (Burkina Faso) gold projects and the Toro Gold’s Mako gold project (Senegal).

Optimisation Update

Optimisation of the process plant flowsheet has continued to advance since completion of the updated Feasibility Study in June (FS). The Company has confirmed that by increasing the size and power of both the SAG and ball mills to the levels being supplied by Outotec the throughput rate while feeding higher grade fresh (hard) ore can be increased to maintain a minimum feed rate of 250tph (2Mtpa), up from 200tph (1.6Mtpa) detailed in the June FS. For Sanbrado this mill package is will deliver a higher throughput than nameplate on a blend of oxide and fresh material. Optimisation of the mine schedule and plant design will incorporate the larger mill package and is on track to be completed by Q1 2019. A significant improvement in project economics versus the FS is expected by delivering more gold in the early years of the operation from an accelerated mine schedule with a relatively small change in the processing-plant capital requirements.

Owners Team

During the September quarter the Company hired a group of highly experienced expatriates for key positions in WAF’s owner’s construction team for Sanbrado. All new employees have previous gold mine start-up experience in Burkina Faso and are multi-lingual. The following key positions have been filled:

• General Manager - Ouagadougou

• Construction Manager

• Earthworks Manager

• Contracts Manager

• Safety and First Aid Officer/Registered Nurse

Page: 2

West African Resources Limited

Early Works

The Company has started constructing the first stage of the 210-room camp at the Sanbrado project site. The initial 60 rooms and common facilities for use during the construction phase are due to be completed by late March 2019.

Earthworks have commenced on the box cut for the underground access, which is being completed by the owner’s team using locally hired equipment. This is forecast to deliver significant cost savings against the June FS, which envisaged outsourcing the box cut to external engineers and earthmoving contractors.

Mining Contracts

Open-pit and underground mining contractors completed site visits in during October. The Company is currently reviewing contract bids and will short list candidates before going into a final round of negotiations. The Company expects to award the underground mining contract during Q4 2018, and the open-pit contract during Q1 2019.

Photo 1: Stage One Camp Area Clearing

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Page: 3

West African Resources Limited

Photo 2: Box cut establishment

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Updated Schedule

The updated development schedule to first gold production is presented below.

Figure 1: Sanbrado Gold Project Development Schedule

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Page: 4

West African Resources Limited

About West African Resources

West African Resources Limited (ASX, TSXV: WAF) recently announced the results of its updated Feasibility Study for the Sanbrado Gold Project in Burkina Faso. The study envisages an initial 11-year mine life, including 4.5 years of underground mining, and showed a 76% increase in Probable Reserves to 1.6 million ounces (20.4Mt at 2.4g/t gold). The project will have average annual production over the first 5 years of mine life of 211,000 ounces gold and a 16 month post-tax pay back on US$185 million pre-production capital costs. Project economics are robust, with AISC of US$551/oz over first 5 years and US$640 over life of mine. The project returns a pre-tax NPV5% of US$567m (A$754m) and pre-tax IRR of 62%, and Post-tax NPV5% of US$405m (A$540m) and post-tax IRR of 49%. Mineralisation is open at depth and along strike and therefore value add drilling on the project is ongoing, with further resource and reserve updates expected later in Q1 2019.

==> picture [459 x 162] intentionally omitted <==

==> picture [459 x 162] intentionally omitted <==

Forward Looking Information

This news release contains “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable Canadian and Australian securities legislation, including information relating to West African's future financial or operating performance may be deemed “forward looking”. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, that address events or developments that West African expects to occur, are “forward-looking statements”. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects”, “does not expect”, “plans”, “anticipates”, “does not anticipate”, “believes”, “intends”, “estimates”, “projects”, “potential”, “scheduled”, “forecast”, “budget” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will”, “would”, “may”, “could”, “should” or “might” occur. All such forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of the relevant management as of the date such statements are made and are subject to important risk factors and uncertainties, many of which are beyond West African’s ability to control or predict. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based on estimates and assumptions that are inherently subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In the case of West African, these facts include their anticipated operations in future periods, planned exploration and development of its properties, and plans

Page: 5

West African Resources Limited

related to its business and other matters that may occur in the future. This information relates to analyses and other information that is based on expectations of future performance and planned work programs. Statements concerning mineral resource estimates may also be deemed to constitute forward-looking information to the extent that they involve estimates of the mineralization that will be encountered if a mineral property is developed.

Forward-looking information is subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause actual events or results to differ from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information, including, without limitation: exploration hazards and risks; risks related to exploration and development of natural resource properties; uncertainty in West African’s ability to obtain funding; gold price fluctuations; recent market events and conditions; risks related to the uncertainty of mineral resource calculations and the inclusion of inferred mineral resources in economic estimation; risks related to governmental regulations; risks related to obtaining necessary licenses and permits; risks related to their business being subject to environmental laws and regulations; risks related to their mineral properties being subject to prior unregistered agreements, transfers, or claims and other defects in title; risks relating to competition from larger companies with greater financial and technical resources; risks relating to the inability to meet financial obligations under agreements to which they are a party; ability to recruit and retain qualified personnel; and risks related to their directors and officers becoming associated with other natural resource companies which may give rise to conflicts of interests. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect West African’s forward-looking information. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in the forward-looking information.

West African’s forward-looking information is based on the reasonable beliefs, expectations and opinions of their respective management on the date the statements are made, and West African does not assume any obligation to update forward looking information if circumstances or management’s beliefs, expectations or opinions change, except as required by law. For the reasons set forth above, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. For a complete discussion with respect to West African, please refer to West African’s financial statements and related MD&A, all of which are filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Page: 6