AMN - BURKINA FASO: Boungou commissioning underway

SEMAFO Inc has started final commissioning of the process plant at the Boungou Gold Project in Burkina Faso. First ore is scheduled to be introduced to the mill circuit by the end of May and first gold pour is expected in June, slightly ahead of schedule.

At the end of April, the project was 97% complete with the processing plant 100% complete and commissioning 57% complete.

In a company update, SEMAFO said the crushing circuit, vertimill, pre-leach and tailings thickeners, leaching/CIP circuit and water services were already commissioned.

It said commissioning of the SAG mill, gravity, elution circuit, gold room, compressors and oxygen plant was initiated in May.

The update stated that the Boungou development was on budget with US$202 million of the US$231 million capital expenditure incurred.

At the mine, pre-stripping was 87% completed with 15.6 million of the projected 18 million tonnes extracted.

There had been 70,000 tonnes of low-grade ore stockpiled on the ROM pad.

Recruitment of mine operator employees was near-complete with training to be completed in May.

There were 1480 personnel, including contractors, employed on site, 86% of whom are Burkinabe. Demobilisation of construction and contract personnel has started.

SEMAFO said 5.2 million man-hours, or 515 days, had been worked without lost-time injury.

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

As well as Boungou, the corporation operates the Mana Mine in Burkina Faso, which includes the high-grade satellite deposit of Siou.

www.semafo.com