Modern Mining March 2020

Key milestones at Yaouré Gold Development of Perseus Mining Limited’s Yaouré Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire has reached a 45% project completion milestone as at end of February this year, with process plant construction ahead of schedule and under budget, writes Munesu Shoko . the tailing storage facility (TSF) site has been fully cleared and grubbed, with the TSF wall construction at 20% as at end of February.

Construction of the 17 km perimeter fence line is nearing completion, while incoming roads have been upgraded to accept heavy traffic. Meanwhile, a diversion road between villages has also been completed. Completion targets and budget These project milestones, Grove says, leave con- struction of Yaouré at 45% completion. “We have spent US$116-million as at end of January this year to reach this milestone. In total, about US$171-million of the total US$265-million capital has been commit- ted, which leaves any prospect for overruns limited,” says Grove. As of December 2019, Perseus Mining had US$80-million cash and bullion plus US$100-million available under the US$150-million revolving corpo- rate facility. The company also generated a strong quarterly cashflow in excess of US$30-million and there are generally no issues in the funding of the development of the mine. Meanwhile, process plant construction is ahead of schedule and under budget. The processing facil- ity at Yaouré is being constructed by Lycopodium and Perseus. The capital cost based on the FEED (Front End Engineering Design) study completed in November 2018 was US$265-million. The cir- cuit comprises a single stage crushing, SAG milling

C onstruction at ASX- and TSX-listed Perseus Mining’s third mine, Yaouré Gold Project, located in central Côte d’Ivoire, 40 km north- west of the political capital, Yamoussoukro, and 260 km northwest of Abidjan, is forging ahead with some key project milestones achieved thus far. The construction of the project is managed by Perseus Mining’s development team and Lycopodium, the same team and engineering com- pany that built Perseus Mining’s Sissingué gold project, also located in Côte d’Ivoire, ahead of time and on budget. Project milestones Speaking to Modern Mining , Andrew Grove, Group GM BD and IR at Perseus Mining, says several key substructures of the project are progressing well, in line with the stretch target of pouring the first gold by December 2020, and contracted date for first gold in January 2021. Detailing some of the most recent project mile- stones, Grove says the engineering works are fully complete, and so is the process plant and camp earthworks. The mill shells have arrived on site two months ahead of the scheduled date. Elsewhere,

18  MODERN MINING  March 2020