West African Resources says it has poured first gold at its Sanbrado gold project, in Burkina Faso, just over a week since confirming construction activities had been completed on all areas of the process plant and tailings storage facility.

The inaugural pour occurred on March 18, with gold bars weighing 23.9 kg (768 troy ounces) poured in the first smelt on site.

Since processing started up, 75,000 t of ore at 1.5 g/t Au has been processed, with indicative metallurgical recoveries of over 90%, West African said.

The process plant has also exceeded nameplate capacity for the past seven days of production, the company noted.

Open-pit ore stockpiles are also building with 250,000 t at 1.5 g/t Au on the run of mine pad, the company noted, adding that first underground development ore had been mined and stockpiled, ready to process.

West African Executive Chairman, Richard Hyde, said: “This is a major milestone for West African Resources and marks the beginning of a new phase in the WAF story. To successfully transition from an exploration company to a gold producer is without doubt a great achievement for all involved.

“I would like to thank WAF’s owners’ team and all consultants, contractors and other stakeholders for their hard work and support over the last four years to bring Sanbrado from discovery into production.”