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June 2016
MODERN MINING
25
WEST AFRICA
feature
The entry way to the new
permanent camp accom-
modation with 350-person
capacity.
Crews worked through the
night during the 56-hour
mill foundation concrete
pour.
run-off during the 2016 rainy season) and con-
struction has started on the process water and
contact water dams. Currently, the construction
force on site numbers around 700 workers from
both B2Gold and contractors.
To date, many of the major processing plant
packages have been identified and purchase
orders issued. Equipment already on order
includes the SAG and ball mills, thicken-
ers, cyclones, the primary crusher and tanks.
During the first quarter of this year, B2Gold
also signed a US$80,9 million equipment facil-
ity with Caterpillar Financial which secures the
funding for the mining fleet.
The Fekola project is located within the
Kayes Region of south-western Mali near the
border with Senegal. It is situated about 40 km
south of the city of Kéniéba and is 525 km by
road from the Malian capital of Bamako, with
the 480 km stretch from Bamako to Kéniéba
being the new Millennium Highway. The
project was acquired by B2Gold in 2014 after
it merged with Papillon Resources, which
had taken the project to pre-feasibility stage.
Papillon, however, was by no means the first
company to have held the project. The gold
mineralisation in the area was first discovered
in 1953 and subsequent explorers of the prop-
erty – which hosts an orogenic-style deposit
– included BRGM (1975-82) and Randgold
(1998-2001).
The project is being developed as an open-
pit mine, where run-of-mine ore will be trucked
to the plant, crushed, and then treated in a
grinding circuit utilising conventional SAG and
ball mills, and a carbon-in-pulp (CIP) recovery
process.
The mine plan is based on probable min-
eral reserves of 49,2 Mt at an average grade of
2,35 g/t containing 3,72 Moz of gold at a strip-
ping ratio of 4,5:1 to be mined over 9,5 years
(with use of stockpiles extending the mine life
to 12,5 years). Annual mined tonnage will total
32 Mt, using stockpiling to optimise head grade
and gold production in the first seven years of
the project. Over the life of mine, the average
annual gold production will be 276 000 ounces
of gold a year at an operating cash cost of
US$552 per ounce. Production in the first seven
years, however, will average 350 000 ounces a
year at a US$418/oz operating cash cost.
The Fekola pit, which will ultimately be
320 m deep, is planned for development in a
sequence of seven 150 to 250 m wide and 500
to 750 m long stages (cutbacks). The staged pit
development strategy allows B2Gold to defer the
waste mining requirements and bring forward
the mining of high grade ore. It also mitigates
the geological, geotechnical and economic risks
for the project considering the 1,9 km length
of the pit. The design of the future pit stages
during the operations, especially the last two
stages with higher production cost per ounce,
can be adjusted progressively depending on the
operational experience, exposed ground condi-
tions and changes in economic conditions.
The waste dump design is based on 120 m
vertical lifts with 18 deg faces and 5 m berms,
with dump location considerations based on
minimising haulage, surface water drainage
and area availability.
B2Gold will be undertaking the open-pit
mining in house using a mining fleet which
will include – according to current planning
– two (and later three) 200-t class shovels and