Modern Mining October 2017

MINING News

Wet commissioning underway at Houndé

months’ worth of ore feed already stock- piled on the ROM and the transition of the experienced Agbaou processing team to Houndé. This confidence has allowed us to continue to aggressively advance Endeavour’s high-quality project pipeline with a portion of the Houndé construction team already transitioning to the Ity CIL project (see page 8) and the launch of the Kalana updated feasibility study.” Keymilestones achieved to date include 6,3 million man-hours worked without a lost time injury. Open-pit mining activities at the main Vindaloo open pit commenced in late December 2016 with over 8 Mt moved to date. A total of 515 kt at 2,8 g/t containing 46 koz has already been mined and stock- piled on the ROM pad, representing nearly three months of feed. Mining to date sug- gests positive grade reconciliation against the resource model, says Endeavour. The General Manager of Endeavour’s Agbaou mine and the majority of its pro- cessing team, who successfully ramped-up the mill in 2014, have been transferred to Houndé to de-risk its start-up as the plants are of similar design. The construction of the fuel farm, the 90 kV overhead power line and the 26 MW backup power station have been com- pleted, with power having been drawn down from the national grid. The construction of the water har- vest dam decant tower is complete, with water already being pumped to the water storage dam. Current dam volume is approximately 2 million m 3 , with the water harvesting still feeding the water storage dam. The TSF Cell 1 construction is com- plete and operational and the TSF Cell 2 construction and ROM pad extension are underway. Cell 2 was not scheduled until year 2 of operations but has now been brought forward. Once in production, Houndé will become Endeavour’s flagship low-cost mine, ranking amongst West Africa’s top tier cash generatingmines, with an average annual production of 190 000 ounces at an All-In Sustaining Cost (AISC) of US$709/ oz over an initial 10-year mine life based on reserves. In its first four years, the aver- age annual production is expected to be 235 000 ounces at an AISC of US$610/oz. 

Aerial view of the Houndé plant (photo: Endeavour Mining).

TSX-listed Endeavour Mining Corporation reports that excellent progress continues to be made at its Houndé gold project in Burkina Faso, as wet commissioning has commenced and the first ore has been introduced to the process plant milling cir- cuit in preparation for production. The first gold pour is expected ahead of schedule in the fourth quarter. The project – on which construction began in April last year – is an open-pit mine with a 3,0 Mt/a gravity circuit/CIL plant. The initial capital cost is estimated at

US$328 million, inclusive of US$46 million for the owner-mining fleet. Comme n t s J e r emy L a n g f o r d , Endeavour’s COO: “We are very proud of the progress made in recent months in spite of the challenges presented by exceptionally heavy rainfall this past wet- season. Construction remains on budget and ahead of schedule as we rapidly approach the first gold pour without a lost time injury. “Moreover, we believe that we have sig- nificantly de-risked its start-up with three “The P5M volumetric upgrades are in the final stages of commissioning, with levels in excess of 13 500 tonnes per day of hard rock being processed through the mill. This is a significant achievement as hard rock currently makes up 93 % of our mill feed blend whilst we are waiting for a consistent supply of oxide ore, which will come from the Akwasiso and Dynamite Hill satellite pits. In spite of having encountered three mill motor outages in the quarter, the positive results from the mining interven- tions as well as the plant’s performance mean we are tracking our revised 2017 production guidance.” 

Interventions at Asanko Gold Mine yielding results Asanko Gold Inc has provided an opera- tional update on the Asanko Gold Mine (AGM), located in Ghana, West Africa.

“The mining interventions we put in place in July at Nkran are starting to yield very encouraging results and the blast movement technology is making a signifi- cant contribution to the management of ore losses and dilution, as evidenced by the positive variances we are seeing in grade and ounces,” says Peter Breese, President and CEO of Asanko.“The continued positive resource and reserve reconciliations clearly confirm the Life of Mine plan with respect to our future expansions.

6  MODERN MINING  October 2017