Endeavour Mining has announced that progress continues to be made at its Ity CIL project in Côte d'Ivoire, as wet commissioning has commenced.
Image: Process Plant - Wet Plant. Photo: Courtesy of Endeavour Mining Corporation.
Construction is progressing on-budget with over 97% of the total project complete and the first gold pour expected to occur two months ahead of schedule in early Q2-2019.
Sébastien de Montessus, President & CEO, stated: “We are proud of the key milestones achieved in recent months as the project construction has been significantly de-risked. We are excited to have commenced the commissioning phase several months ahead of the initial schedule and look forward to the first gold pour in early Q2-2019.
The start of production at Ity will be a transformative moment for Endeavour. It will become, alongside Houndé, our second flagship mine, and marks the end of several years of large capital-intensive projects which will allow us to focus on cash flow generation and generating returns on our capital employed.
With seven drill rigs currently operating in the Le Plaque area, we expect our additional exploration activity to further demonstrate the potential of Ity.”
Key milestones achieved to date include:
Over 8 million man-hours have been worked without a lost time injury.
Overall project completion stands at more than 97%, tracking approximately two months ahead of schedule.
The project remains on-budget with the remaining cash outflow for 2019 amounting to $50 – $60 million.
Wet commissioning has commenced and, in preparation for production, ore is expected to be introduced into the process plant milling circuit in the coming days.
The dry plant has been successfully commissioned.
The tailings storage facility construction is complete.
The 11kV switch room and 11kV overhead power line have been commissioned, the 90kV transmission line construction is nearly complete, and the back-up power station has been commissioned.
The Daapleu haul bridge construction and river diversion have been completed.
The resettlement of Daapleu is complete and the official ceremony of handing over the houses took place on December 10, 2018.
Construction of the 312-room permanent employee camp, messing, and staff recreation facilities are complete.
Pre-stripping commenced at the Bakatouo and Ity Flat deposits in late 2018.
Demobilization of construction personnel has begun following the completion of key construction milestones, and operating teams are in place with training programs well underway.
Ity is expected to produce 160 – 200koz in 2019 at an AISC of $525 – 590/oz, with the bottom-end production guidance corresponding to the nameplate capacity while the top-end factors possible upsides such as an earlier start date, a quicker than expected ramp-up and the plant producing above its nameplate.
An aggressive exploration program is underway, with seven drill rigs active on the La Plaque target with the aim of publishing an updated resource in Q2-2019. For 2019, a total of 70,000-meters are planned to be drilled in the Le Plaque area and on other nearby targets.
Source: Company Press Release.