Modern Mining January 2020

deploys nearly 1 600 pieces of equipment. The contract will run for a period of 65 months commencing on 1 November 2020 and envisages the movement of approximately 170 Mt of material, including 27 Mt of ore containing more than 1,5 Moz of gold. EPSA is expected to commence mobilising equipment to site in the March 2020 quarter, after which it will employ and train a predominantly Ivorian workforce in preparation for the formal commence- ment of the contract later in the year. The award of the contract was the culmination of a competitive tendering process in which eight

fully operational, Perseus will be producing in excess of 500 000 ounces of gold per year. The average all- in site cost of producing gold at Yaouré over the first five years of the mine is forecast to be US$734 per ounce, meaning that if gold prices are maintained at current levels, then very strong cashflows will be generated and available for funding benefits for our stakeholders.” The project is being undertaken by the same teams (Perseus’s own in-house team and Lycopodium) that delivered Perseus’s second mine, Sissingué in northern Côte d’Ivoire, ahead of time

A recent aerial view of the Yaouré plant site.

The ore will be processed in a conventional plant consisting of single-stage crushing, SAG and ball milling, gravity and CIL recovery.

and on budget. Sissingué achieved commercial produc- tion on 1 April 2018. In December 2019, Perseus announced ano t he r key appointment for Yaouré, report- ing that the mining services contract had been awarded to EPSA Internacional SA (EPSA). Headquartered in Spain, EPSA is a privately owned, global earthmoving and mining con- tractor that provides a range of mining, civil works and earth- moving services to a blue-chip list of mining clients located in 15 countries. It has approxi- mately 4 000 employees and

Top projects

January 2020  MODERN MINING  53