In 2018, Nordgold’s Bissa gold mine in Burkina Faso has successfully commissioned a Wenco Fleet Management System (FMS). This has helped to further increase the mine’s efficiency and safety. “FMS ensures 24/7 operations control via a modern dispatch system. This can surveil the entire Bissa-Bouly hub operations in real-time mode, as well as calling the supervisors to improve the fleet traffic. All these measures not only increases efficiency, but helps avoid traffic accidents.”

Wenco solutions are installed on the loading and hauling fleet, and auxiliary equipment. Wenco is integrated with SAP to allow the sharing of data between the fleet management and enterprise resource planning systems. One focus area is on optimising their loader utilisation at the crusher where the loader would load from different material stockpiles directly into the crusher. This is anticipated to greatly improve plant output. Spotters at the loading area use “toughpads” to connect directly to Wenco in the loader to assist the operator with loading material.

Bissa is a world class mine launched in January 2013. The mine reached industrial scales of production within the first month of operation and full capacity after only 6 months. Bissa mine fully paid back the investment within 21 months after the launch. Nordgold expanded its flagship Bissa mine with the launch of a heap leach operation at the nearby Bouly deposit in September 2016. The Bouly mine reached full production capacity in just two month after launch. Bissa produced 195,700 oz of gold in 2017 and Bouly 124,200 oz.