Modern Mining June 2015

MINING IN AFRICA

4,3 m diameter, 6 m long ball mill (Outotec in South Africa), the 800 t/h mineral sizer (MMD Mineral Sizing of Johannesburg) and the six CIL tanks (Tryline Steel Engineering, also of South Africa). Covered in our April issue this year, Yanfolila – which Hummingbird acquired from Gold Fields last year – is located in the Sikasso region of south-west Mali. An open-pit opera- tion, it is expected to commission in H1 2016, with 100 000 ounces of gold being produced in the first year of operation from the 1 Mt/a plant. Average annual production over the initial six- and-a-half-year mine life will be 79 000 ounces. South Africa’s SENET was appointed in July last year to start on the engineering of the plant and related infrastructure. The capital cost of the project is estimated at US$71,6 million. Also in south-west Mali, TSX-listed Avnel Gold is planning the development of a low- cost, open-pit mining operation at its Kalana property, which is already the site of a small underground mine – still in use today but mainly for exploration purposes – developed in the 1980s with assistance from the Soviet Union. The company started on a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) earlier this year – com- panies involved include DRA Global, Epoch and Snowden – and this is expected to be com- pleted in Q1 2016 with a development decision expected soon thereafter. The PEA on the project, completed in early

2014, envisages a 1,2 Mt/a mining and milling operation with total production of 1,46 Moz of gold over a mine life of 14 years (with an average annual production of 135 000 ounces during the first six years and a peak produc- tion of 200 000 ounces in year 3). The PEA estimated the initial capital cost at US$149 mil- lion. Subject to a positive DFS result and the securing of funding, Avnel is hoping to be in commercial production by H2 2018. More advanced than Kalana is B2Gold’s Fekola project where road construction and site earthworks began in February this year led by core members of the B2Gold team which recently successfully delivered the Otjikoto

Construction of the process- ing plant at the new Asanko Gold Mine (AGM) in Ghana is well advanced (photo: Philip Mostert, on behalf of Asanko Gold).

The Wassa gold mine of Golden Star Resources (GSR) in Ghana. The current open-pit mining is to be supplemented by an under- ground operation with first production expected early next year (photo: GSR).

feature

June 2015  MODERN MINING  35