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MODERN MINING
May 2017
CRUSHING, SCREENING
AND MILLING
T
he ball mill for Hummingbird Resourc-
es’ Yanfolila gold project in Mali was
recently unloaded at a port in West
Africa. The mill was constructed predomi-
nantly in Italy, France and Holland with the
work been overseen by Outotec. The mill rep-
resents a significant part of the process plant
and was completed on
budget. It is due to arrive
on site on schedule this
month (May).
Hummingbird, whose
shares are quoted on AIM,
reports that construction
of the 1,2 Mt/a Yanfolila
mine is progressing on
time and on budget ahead
of initial mining targeted
in Q3 2017 and the first
gold pour by year end.
Construction of the
CIL tanks commenced in
Q1 2017 following the
Yanfolila
gears up for production
successful construction of the tower crane.
Construction is on-going and is expected to
be completed shortly. All drawing and design
work has been completed for the crushing cir-
cuit and the fabrication is now underway. The
secondary crusher and vibrating grizzly are
already on site and various parts will be deliv-
ered through to August this year.
Yanfolila will have an average annual gold
production over a Life of Mine (LOM) of eight
years of 107 000 ounces although the first full
year of operation will see 132 000 ounces being
produced. In all, some 8,7 Mt of ore (at an aver-
age grade of 2,95 g/t and a LOM strip ratio of
11,9 to 1) will be mined over the mine life to
produce a total of 770 000 ounces.
The EPCM contractor for the plant and asso-
ciated infrastructure is South African project
house SENET while IMAGRI-SARL – a Malian
contractor – is responsible for the civil works
and SMPP work. African Mining Services
(AMS), a subsidiary of ASX-listed Ausdrill, has
been selected as the mining contractor.
The Yanfolila ball mill was
recently unloaded at a West
African port (photo: Hum-
mingbird).