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June 2015
MODERN MINING
35
MINING IN AFRICA
feature
Construction of the process-
ing plant at the new Asanko
Gold Mine (AGM) in Ghana
is well advanced (photo:
Philip Mostert, on behalf of
Asanko Gold).
The Wassa gold mine of
Golden Star Resources
(GSR) in Ghana. The current
open-pit mining is to be
supplemented by an under-
ground operation with first
production expected early
next year (photo: GSR).
4,3 m diameter, 6 m long ball mill (Outotec in
South Africa), the 800 t/h mineral sizer (MMD
Mineral Sizing of Johannesburg) and the six
CIL tanks (Tryline Steel Engineering, also of
South Africa).
Covered in our April issue this year,
Yanfolila – which Hummingbird acquired from
Gold Fields last year – is located in the Sikasso
region of south-west Mali. An open-pit opera-
tion, it is expected to commission in H1 2016,
with 100 000 ounces of gold being produced in
the first year of operation from the 1 Mt/a plant.
Average annual production over the initial six-
and-a-half-year mine life will be 79 000 ounces.
South Africa’s SENET was appointed in July
last year to start on the engineering of the plant
and related infrastructure. The capital cost of
the project is estimated at US$71,6 million.
Also in south-west Mali, TSX-listed Avnel
Gold is planning the development of a low-
cost, open-pit mining operation at its
Kalana
property, which is already the site of a small
underground mine – still in use today but
mainly for exploration purposes – developed
in the 1980s with assistance from the Soviet
Union. The company started on a Definitive
Feasibility Study (DFS) earlier this year – com-
panies involved include DRA Global, Epoch
and Snowden – and this is expected to be com-
pleted in Q1 2016 with a development decision
expected soon thereafter.
The PEA on the project, completed in early
2014, envisages a 1,2 Mt/a mining and milling
operation with total production of 1,46 Moz
of gold over a mine life of 14 years (with an
average annual production of 135 000 ounces
during the first six years and a peak produc-
tion of 200 000 ounces in year 3). The PEA
estimated the initial capital cost at US$149 mil-
lion. Subject to a positive DFS result and the
securing of funding, Avnel is hoping to be in
commercial production by H2 2018.
More advanced than Kalana is B2Gold’s
Fekola
project where road construction and
site earthworks began in February this year led
by core members of the B2Gold team which
recently successfully delivered the Otjikoto