Modern Mining May 2018

MINING News

A striking night shot of Yanfolila (photo: Hummingbird). Yanfolila successfully transitions to full-scale operations

mine resources to look to convert oppor- tunities and resources into reserves and an extended mine life. We have committed to spend up to 15 % of our free cash flow into this activity which is anticipated to be in the region of US$8 million. Colin Porter has recently joined the company as exploration manager to head up this activity.” Hummingbird says the successful ramp- up of the entire plant is due to the flexible design and the experience of the construc- tion team – both in-house and in SENET, the engineering contractor. The company also notes that Yanfolila has a 95 % Malian work force with the supervisors and con- trol room operators having been recruited from similar gold operations within Mali, adding important local experience.  Kilembe copper-cobalt deposit is consid- ered a VMS deposit. A number of priority anomalies have been identified from the initial data inter- pretation which will be utilised to focus ground crews who will undertake map- ping and prospecting; detailed ground geophysical surveying; and soil and rock sampling to further define key target areas within the exploration licence. The helicopter survey will now be focused on the company’s licence in Kasese District, south of the former Kilembe mine, and thereafter will be utilised, as required, on a focused basis to support the ground programme currently underway at the Bujagali property. 

AIM-listed Hummingbird Resources says in its report for the quarter ended 31 March 2018 (Q1) that it has success- fully achieved an on-schedule transition from construction, through ramp up, to full scale operations at its Yanfolila gold mine in Mali. Both the mine and plant were operating at nameplate capacity by the end of Q1. During the quarter 18 785 ounces of gold were poured at an average grade of 2,96 g/t with the figures for March being 9 912 ounces at an average grade of 3,39 g/t. Total ore processed was 238 628 tonnes. Production guidance for 2018 is between 105 000 and 115 000 ounces (including the Q1 ramp-up). “Yanfolila had a strong start to the year

with the ramp up phase going to plan and with a significant increase in performance throughout the quarter,” says Dan Betts, CEO of Hummingbird. “The process plant is operating to design specification and the grade and recoveries of gold we are seeing are solid and consistent with expectations. Progress has been strong and I am pleased that we are able to declare commercial pro- duction from 1 April 2018 with the plant having operated at over 95 % of nameplate for the month of March and continuing to operate at 100 % throughout April. “The focus remains on continually refining and improving Yanfolila into a con- sistent low-cost operation. Additionally, one of our immediate priorities this year is to aggressively explore and develop the near mineralisation at depth; better understand local stratigraphy; and sample buried bed- rock in preparation for drilling. At M2 Cobalt’s Kilembe Area proper- ties, Geotech has now completed the helicopter-borne VTEM™ B-Field and hori- zontal magnetic gradiometer geophysical survey over the company’s northernmost exploration licence in Bunyangabu District (Kilembe Area Property). The survey was flown at 100-m spaced lines and was designed to identify priority geophysical anomalies analogous to that of volcano- genic massive sulphide deposits (VMS) for follow-up exploration. The past producing

M2 Cobalt commences trenching at Bujagali M2 Cobalt Corp, listed on the TSX-V, has mobilised trenching crews and has com- menced trenching its Waragi and Bombo targets at the Bujagali property in Uganda. Both targets comprise large-scale cobalt, copper and nickel anomalies recently dis- covered by M2 Cobalt through its ongoing exploration programmes. Anomalous soil and rock samples at the Waragi tar- get contain 1,24 % Co and 0,4 % Cu and anomalous soil and rock samples at Bombo contain 0,65 % Co, 0,4 % Cu and 0,15 % Ni.

Trenches are designed from 30 to 90 m in length cross cutting stratigraphy to test

12  MODERN MINING  May 2018