The announcement is based on Bombore achieving 30 consecutive days of mill throughput exceeding 70% of the nominal nameplate capacity of 14,250 tonnes per day (tpd) and recovery reaching design levels of 90%
Orezone starts production at Bomboré gold mine. (Credit: Alex Banner from Pixabay)
Canadian gold mining company Orezone Gold announced that its Bomboré gold mine in Burkina Faso has commenced commercial production.
The announcement is based on Bombore achieving 30 consecutive days of mill throughput exceeding 70% of the nominal nameplate capacity of 14,250 tonnes per day (tpd) and recovery reaching design levels of 90%.
In the last month, the mill processed 364,123 ore tonnes or 12,137tpd at a recovery rate of 91%.
Bomboré gold mine is located 85km east of the capital city of Ouagadougou and hosts a large free-digging oxide resource underlain by higher-grade sulphide resources.
Orezone owns a 90% interest in the mine project; with the government of Burkina Faso retaining a 10% carried interest.
Its management plans to provide annual guidance for Bombore in January 2023, said the company.
Orezone Gold president and CEO Patrick Downey said: “Commercial production at Bomboré is a significant milestone and transforms the company to producer status. We congratulate the Bomboré team for their excellent execution in achieving this goal.
“With our power supply issues now firmly behind us, we are focused on optimising plant performance and steadily increasing throughput and availability with the objective of exceeding design capacity.”
According to the 2019 feasibility study, the project is estimated to generate after-tax NPV5% of $361m and IRR of 43.8% with a 2.5-year payback, at a base case gold price of $1300/oz.
It outlines a mine life of more than 13 years with 1.6 million ounces of gold production during its life of mine and an average annual production of 133.8k ounces in the first 10 years.
Orezone is only focused on mining and processing Phase 1 near-surface free-dig oxides at a planned annual throughput of 5.2 million tonnes.
However, the company believes that Bombore has a significant underlying sulphide resource to support a substantially larger Phase 2 expansion.
In September this year, Orezone announced the first gold pour from Bomboré mine, with construction completed under budget, on time, and with no lost time injuries.