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GOLD
March 2017
MODERN MINING
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most recently GM and Head of Operations
at Newmont Golden Ridge, in which role he
oversaw commissioning and production at the
9 Mt/a Akyem gold mine in Ghana. Prior to this
he was Executive GM at Bisha in Eritrea, where
he successfully managed the construction,
commissioning and operations at the 1 Mt/a
gold plant and the 2,4 Mt/a copper plant.
“Including the contractors, we are expect-
ing to employ around 400 people on the mine,”
notes Monro. “Given that Mali is the third big-
gest gold mining country in Africa, there is a
substantial skills base available locally and
we anticipate that Yanfolila will be run almost
entirely by Malians with perhaps just a hand-
ful of expatriates – probably no more than
ten – being required. This is similar to how
Randgold run their mines in Mali.”
Based on the present mine plan, Yanfolila’s
operations will extend through to around 2024
but Hummingbird believes the mine life will
be extended considerably. “There is more than
a million ounces of gold outside of our current
mine plan but within our permit and there is
also potential to develop an underground oper-
ation once the open pits are complete,” states
Monro.
“In addition, we have the Gonka deposit,
situated 5 km south of the plant site, which did
not form part of the DFS. We’ve completed a
scoping study – it was undertaken by DRA –
on this resource which indicates that it could
support the mining of approximately 166 000
ounces over six years via both open-pit and
underground methods. The current plant we’re
building would be able to treat the Gonka ore
in parallel with the ore from the currently
planned mining operations which could add
up to an additional 30 000 ounces per year to
production. Replacing 3 g/t ore with 4,5 g/t ore
from Gonka has lots of benefits.”
While Yanfolila is Hummingbird’s imme-
diate focus, the company – founded by the
present MD, Dan Betts, in 2005 – has a second
project waiting in the wings. This is Dugbe in
south-east Liberia, which – with over 4 Moz of
gold – ranks as Liberia’s largest gold deposit. A
PEA on the project has been completed and a
partly completed DFS is currently undergoing
optimisation.
“Hummingbird’s vision is to be more than
just a one-mine company and Dugbe will allow
us to achieve this objective and start to enter
the ranks of the true mid-tier producers,” says
Monro. “It will require a much higher capex
than Yanfolila but in return offers a 20-year
life at an average annual production of 125 000
ounces. Getting Yanfolila up and running is
currently keeping the Hummingbird team
very busy but we continue to highly value the
Dugbe gold project and want to see it devel-
oped in the future.”
Report by Arthur Tassell, photos courtesy of Hummingbird
The very latest shot of
Yanfolila taken in early
March – comparing it with
the photo opposite from late
last year, one can see the
rapid pace of construction.