Modern Mining June 2019

REGIONAL FOCUS: WEST AFRICA

and situated just beyond the 500 m blast zone around the M5 pit. The TSF is designed with a storage capacity of 25 Mt and comprises two cells, each of approximately 12,5 Mt capacity. Rawwater will be sourced from the Nakambé River approximately 20 km to the south-west of the site. Water will be abstracted using sub- mersible pumps which will transfer water to the Water Storage Facility (WSF) via a buried HDPE pipeline. The WSF is located immedi- ately south-west of the TSF. The WSF is the main storage pond for raw water on site, and is able to store up to 1,5 Mm³ of water at the max- imum operating level. Water will be pumped from the river over a four-month period during the wet season. To execute the Sanbrado project, WAF – which is headed by MD and founding share- holder Richard Hyde, a geologist who earlier in his career was a regional manager with RSG Global and a senior consulting geologist with Coffey Mining – has assembled a team with considerable West African experience. Heading the project team as Chief Development Officer is Matthew Wilcox, whose African experi- ence includes the management of Nordgold’s 4 Mt/a Bissa and 8 Mt/a Bouly projects, both in Burkina Faso, and the 6 Mt/a LEFA gold proj- ect in Guinea. Two key contracts were awarded late last year, with Australia’s Lycopodium being appointed as EPCM contractor for the mineral processing facility and supporting infrastruc- ture and Byrnecut Burkina Faso, part of the Australian-based Byrnecut group of compa- nies, as the underground mining contractor. Both have huge West African experience, with Lycopodiumhaving deliveredmore than a dozen gold development projects in the region since 2008 and Byrnecut having current operations in the DRC, Mali, Burkina Faso and Tanzania. The open-pit mining contractor is due to be

appointed in the third quarter of this year. Orders for major long-lead items of equip- ment have also being placed, with the most significant – the mill package – being awarded to Outotec. The company will supply the 4 MW SAG mill and the 4 MW ball mill. Its recent mill deliveries in West Africa include Endeavour Mining’s Ity (Côte d’Ivoire) and Houndé (Burkina Faso) gold projects and Toro’s Mako gold project in Senegal. According to WAF, the project is currently running on-schedule, with the workforce on site expected to peak at approximately 1 300 peo- ple, 96 % of whom will be Burkinabé. Mining of both underground and open-pit ore will start in Q1-2020 and plant commissioning and ramp- up in Q2-2020 with the first commercial gold production being achieved in the final quarter of 2020. Once in production, the mine will provide employment for roughly 700 people, a welcome development for a region in Burkina Faso which currently has no gold mines. Report by Arthur Tassell, photos courtesy of West African Resources.

View of the plant area at Sanbrado with construction still at an early stage.

June 2019  MODERN MINING  37