Modern Mining July 2016

MINING News

The Yanfolila site where early earthworks have already been completed (photo: Hummingbird).

SENET awarded EPCM contract for Yanfolila

AIM-listed Hummingbird Resources has awarded the Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) contract for its Yanfolila project in Mali to SENET, a leading South African project management and engineering company. SENET will carry out detailed engineering and manage the mine construction at the 1,24 Mt/a open-pit gold project, for which Hummingbird recently closed a US$71 million fundraise, ahead of anticipated production by the end of 2017. SENET worked on both the Loulo (Mali) and Tongon (Côte d’lvoire) mines for Randgold Resources and has more recently been involved in the execution of

directly for gold mining companies such KBK Gold where he was instrumental in project execution. Yanfolila will produce 132 000 oz of gold in its first full year of production with LoM average production of 107 000 oz/a. The project has an IRR of 60 % and an NPV of US$162 million at a US$1 250 gold price and is expected to generate over US$70 million of free cash flow in its first year of full production. It will have an AISC of US$695/oz – which is expected to be in the lowest quartile of African producers. According to Hummingbird, the project has significant upside from over 1 Moz of gold inventory outside of the current mine plan within the mining permit. Comments Dan Betts, MD of Humming­ bird Resources: “With SENET contracted for Yanfolila’s mine construction, detailed engi- neering has now commenced. We have been working with SENET for two years through the optimisation of the project and delivery of the DFS and we look for- ward to building a mine with them. SENET were previously involved with Yanfolila when it was owned by Gold Fields so their knowledge of the project is second to none. Coupled with their long and impres- sive history of delivering quality projects in Africa, this gives us all great confidence. “I am also extremely pleased to wel- come Wayne Galea to the Hummingbird team as Project Manager. He is a key hire for project delivery and brings a wealth of experience to the role that we are already benefiting from.” 

True Gold’s Karma project in Burkina Faso. Procurement has commenced on long lead items such as the ball mill, tower crane and CIL tanks. Hummingbird has also announced that Wayne Galea has been appointed as Yanfolila Project Manager to work with Shaun Bunn, Technical Director. He is a mining professional with 31 years’ experi- ence in the mining industry specialising in gold. A process engineer by background, he has worked for a number of the world’s leading engineering companies includ- ing AMEC, Bateman and Signet, where he gained extensive experience of manag- ing EPCM contracts. He has also worked the meantime, BMR has started placing orders for locally manufactured items for the leach/precipitation section. The main 90 m 3 sulphuric acid storage tank has been acquired and is in place. Plant design optimisation has resulted in standardising tank sizes for leach/precipitation/zinc re-leach and lead leach sections. Similarly, in the zinc solvent extraction (SX) circuit, optimi- sation of the extraction and stripping phases has resulted in a reduction in the tank sizes. This will result in a modest reduction in plant capital costs. BMR says the expected plant com- missioning date for the commencement of production remains on schedule for early 2017. 

BMR makes progress on Kabwe plant Reporting on its current activities, AIM- listed BMR – which is focused on the recovery of lead and zinc from the tail- ings deposits of Zambia’s oldest mine at Kabwe – says that negotiations are proceeding well with the private South African group engaged inmining, energy and agri-business concerning a US$2 million facility for the construction of the plant at Kabwe and the related sale and purchase agreement for the sale of agricultural grade zinc sulphate heptahy- drate (ZSH) (500 tonnes per month) and lead sponge (300 tonnes per month). BMR says that civil works to the floor space in the old mine concentrator building in preparation for the construc- tion of the plant are well advanced. In

4  MODERN MINING  July 2016