VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Montreal-based miner Semafo reports that construction of its $231-million Boungou mine, in Burkina Faso, is 97% complete.
Commissioning of the process plant is under way, with the first ore scheduled to be introduced to the mill circuit by month-end, the West Africa-focused miner said on Thursday.
The first gold pour is now pencilled in for June, slightly ahead of schedule.
Semafo said construction of the processing plant is now 100% complete, with commissioning nearing the 60% level.
The crushing circuit, vertimill, pre-leach and tailings thickeners, leaching/carbon-in-pulp circuit and water services are already commissioned and commissioning of the semi-autogenous grinding mill, gravity, elution circuit, gold room, compressors and oxygen plant started earlier this month.
About $202-million of the construction budget has been spent to date.
Further, Semafo said pre-stripping is 87% complete, with 15.6-million of the projected 18-million tonnes extracted. The company has already amassed a stockpile of 70 000 t of low-grade ore on the run-of-mine pad.
Meanwhile, mine operator recruitment and training is nearing the end this month. Eighty-six per cent of the 1 480 personnel, including contractors, have been employed.
The company has now initiated the demobilisation of construction and contract personnel, having worked 515 days without a single lost-time injury.