Modern Mining February 2018

GOLD

which is focused on gold exploration in Mali and Senegal. The company, whose portfolio includes exploration assets in Mali previously owned by Hummingbird, is run by veteran African explorationist Dr Jon Forster (previ- ously with companies such as SAMAX Gold, AXMIN and Bambuk Minerals). One of its flagship projects is Sanankoro, located within trucking distance of Yanfolila. Although Mali has now become the opera- tional base for Hummingbird’s West African activities, the company does have an excellent asset – Dugbe – in south-east Liberia. Dugbe hosts a 4,2 Moz gold resource and a PEA com- pleted in 2013 indicated that the deposit has the ability to support a mine with a 20-year life producing an average of 125 000 ounces of gold a year. In 2016 Hummingbird delivered a hydro-electric power pre-feasibility study in partnership with Knight Piesold which showed that hydro could potentially power the mine, thereby reducing operating costs significantly. A DFS on the project is in progress and is cur- rently being optimised. Commenting on Dugbe, Monro says that it currently represents the best opportunity Hummingbird has to develop a second mine. “The challenge is that it needs to be built big and this in turn implies a substantial capex – in the region of US$300 million. Funding it in the present investment environment is not going to be easy. But we remain committed to the proj- ect and with Yanfolila up and running we will now be able to devote more of our energies to it. Dugbe is easily the biggest gold deposit in Liberia and virtually demands to be developed – the only real question is when this will hap- pen,” he concludes. Report by Arthur Tassell, photos courtesy of Hummingbird

plant has a capacity of 1,24 Mt/a and incorpo- rates industry-standard unit process operations consisting of primary and secondary crush- ing, closed circuit ball-milling with gravity concentration, intensive leach of the gravity concentrate, carbon-in-leach of the gravity tail- ings, elution, electrowinning and smelting to produce gold doré. Power to the mine is provided by a 7,4 MW diesel power facility which has been provided and is being operated by Aggreko on a seven- year contract. The facility was commissioned in October last year. The current mine life is very likely to be extended, says Monro. “We have around one million ounces of gold outside the current mine plan and drilling will be undertaken during the coming year to move these resources into reserves. In time, this should extend the mine life to well over 10 years.” One of the deposits which will almost cer- tainly be brought into the mine plan is Gonka, located just 5 km south of the plant. Although the Gonka resource was not included in the DFS, the deposit has been the subject of a scoping study level report by DRA which con- firms that it provides high-grade upside for Yanfolila. DRA undertook initial underground mine design and pit optimisation work which resulted in a mining inventory of 166 koz. It is envisaged that this would mined over a six-year mine life via both open-pit (92 koz at 2,3 g/t) and underground (77 koz at 4,5 g/t) operations. Greenfield exploration on its tenements in Mali could result in Hummingbird iden- tifying further mill feed for Yanfolila. In addition, the company has a 33,85 % interest in Cora Gold, which recently listed on AIM and

A Liebherr 9150 excavator loads a Cat 777F at Komana East.

Greenfield exploration on its tenements in Mali could result in Hummingbird identifying further mill feed for Yanfolila.

February 2018  MODERN MINING  29