Semafo hits 97% completion at Boungou, expects first gold by June
VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Montreal-based miner Semafo reports that construction of its $231-million Boungou mine, in Burkina Faso, is 97% complete.
Commissioning of the process plant is under way, with the first ore scheduled to be introduced to the mill circuit by month-end, the West Africa-focused miner said on Thursday.
The first gold pour is now pencilled in for June, slightly ahead of schedule.
Semafo said construction of the processing plant is now 100% complete, with commissioning nearing the 60% level.
The crushing circuit, vertimill, pre-leach and tailings thickeners, leaching/carbon-in-pulp circuit and water services are already commissioned and commissioning of the semi-autogenous grinding mill, gravity, elution circuit, gold room, compressors and oxygen plant started earlier this month.
About $202-million of the construction budget has been spent to date.
Further, Semafo said pre-stripping is 87% complete, with 15.6-million of the projected 18-million tonnes extracted. The company has already amassed a stockpile of 70 000 t of low-grade ore on the run-of-mine pad.
Meanwhile, mine operator recruitment and training is nearing the end this month. Eighty-six per cent of the 1 480 personnel, including contractors, have been employed.
The company has now initiated the demobilisation of construction and contract personnel, having worked 515 days without a single lost-time injury.
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation