28 / 60
GOLD
26
MODERN MINING
April 2015
H
ummingbird’s founder and MD,
Dan Betts, believes that Yan-
folila represents an “incred-
ible investment proposition”
and points out that Gold Fields
spent in the region of US$100 million on ex-
ploration and development studies during the
several years it owned the project (which it
acquired from Glencar Mining in late 2009).
“In essence, we took over a project that had
been taken – to all intents and purposes – to
the Definitive Feasibility Study stage and was
development ready,” he says.
An interesting point is why Gold Fields
relinquished the project. “Yanfolila was too
small for their portfolio but they believe
in the project and sold it to us for ‘paper’ in
Since acquiring the Yanfolila gold project in the Sikasso region of south-west
Mali from Gold Fields in July last year, London-based, AIM-quoted Humming-
bird Resources has moved with remarkable speed to advance the asset and is
now on the brink of starting construction. Production from the new open-pit
mine is expected to start in H1 2016 and will average 79 000 ounces of gold a
year over an initial mine life of six-and-a-half years. The capital cost is esti-
mated at US$71,6 million. Hummingbird’s engineers for the plant are SENET,
based in Johannesburg but active throughout Africa.
Grade control drilling at the
Yanfolila project in Mali.
Dan Betts of Hummingbird Resources pictured at the recent
Mining Indaba in Cape Town (photo: Arthur Tassell).
Yanfolila gold project
on