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MODERN MINING
July 2016
MINING News
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
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 Yanfolila site where early earthworks have already been completed (photo: Hummingbird).
SENET awarded EPCM contract for Yanfolila
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.”
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
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.