Modern Mining November 2018

GOLD

Sissingué mine plan updated The Sissingué processing plant. The mine produced 17 822 ounces of gold in the September 2018 quarter. Perseus Mining, listed on the ASX and TSX, has updated the resources and reserves for its new Sissingué gold mine in Côte d’Ivoire. The mine poured its first gold in late January this year, one month ahead of schedule, and achieved commercial production on 1 April.

B uilt at a cost of US$107 million, Sissingué is Perseus’s second mine. Its first, Edikan, a multi- pit operation, is located in Ghana and has produced approximately 200 000 ounces of gold a year since achieving commercial production in 2012. It has a re- maining mine life of six years with potential to extend. Sissingué is located in the far north of Côte d’Ivoire on an exploitation permit that cov- ers an area of 446 km 2 and is bounded on one side by the international border between Côte d’Ivoire and Mali. The permit is located along a structural/stratigraphic corridor within the Syama-Boundiali greenstone belt approxi- mately 42 km south-southwest of Resolute’s Syama gold mine in Mali and 65 km west- northwest of Randgold’s Tongon mine in Côte d’Ivoire. Conventional open-pit mining methods are used at Sissingué with the ore being treated in a processing plant that uses crushing, grinding, gravity recovery and cyanide leaching to extract gold. The plant has a nameplate throughput

capacity of 1,8 Mt/a on oxide ore derived from the Sissingué pit, 1,7 Mt/a on oxide ore from the Fimbiasso pit and 1 Mt/a on fresh ore. Life of mine ore reserves as at 31 August 2018

Right: Sissingué is a multi-pit mining operation. Approximately 285 kt of ore was mined in the September quarter, well down on the previous quarter (514 kt) due to the site receiving nearly a metre of rain over the three-month period.

26  MODERN MINING  November 2018