AMN - BURKINA FASO: Boungou gold mine 87% complete

Construction of SEMAFO Inc's Boungou Gold Project in Burkina Faso is 87% complete, with first gold scheduled to be poured early in the third quarter of 2018. In the first step towards this milestone, commissioning activities have started on dry plant equipment.

In coming weeks, as construction continues, the crushing and reclaim circuit equipment required for initial production will undergo testing.

The power plant, which was more than 90% complete at the end of February, has been partially operational since early March.

Development is on budget with US$182 million of the US$231 million capital expenditure incurred.

As at February 28, 2018, additional key achievements had been made:

• Completion of 94% of structural steel and mechanical installation;
• Piping installation almost halfway complete;
• The tailings storage facility is more than 80% complete;
• Completion of over 90% of the power plant and fuel depot;
• Almost 65% of electrical and instrumentation installation has been completed;
• Completion of gold room and plant services has been advanced from the third quarter to the second quarter; and
• The assay laboratory is operational.

Pre-stripping is 69% completed with 12.5 million of the projected 18 million tonnes extracted and ore extraction is expected to begin in the coming weeks

There have been 1,818 personnel including contractors employed on site, 85% of whom are Burkinabe and there have been 4.5 million man-hours, or 454 days, worked without lost-time injury.

SEMAFO is a Canadian-based mining company with gold production and exploration activities in West Africa.

The corporation operates the Mana mine in Burkina Faso, which includes the high-grade satellite deposit of Siou, and is targeting production start-up of Boungou in the third quarter of 2018.

www.semafo.com