Tag Archives: Endeavour Mining

Endeavour Mining kicks off wet commissioning at BIOX Expansion project in Senegal

Endeavour Mining says wet commissioning activities are now underway at the Sabodala-Massawa Expansion project (BIOX® Expansion) in Senegal.

The BIOX Expansion project is on budget, with construction now 91% complete, and the first gold pour is expected on schedule, in early May.

The BIOX process, which has been in commercial operation for over 30 years, was developed for the pre-treatment of refractory concentrates ahead of conventional cyanide leaching for gold recovery.

Ian Cockerill, CEO, said: “We are extremely pleased with our progress as we start wet commissioning of the BIOX Expansion project. Importantly, we have achieved this milestone with no lost-time injuries having worked more than three million man hours, which is a testament to the strong safety culture that is a hallmark of our in-house construction teams.

At completion, Sabodala-Massawa will become a true top tier asset with 2024 production of up to 400,000 oz at an industry leading AISC of less than $850/oz, with costs expected to improve further in the coming years, embedding the mine firmly in the lowest cost quartile.

“This year, Endeavour is well positioned to transition from a phase of investment in organic growth, to a more cash flow generative phase in the second half of the year. This inflection point will allow us to focus our efforts on increasing our shareholder returns while de-levering our balance sheet, as we continue to execute on our strategy.”

Wet commissioning of the BIOX Expansion was delivered in less than 23 months after construction was launched in April 2022. During construction activities, up to 1,300 employees and contractors were on site, 82% of whom were Senegalese nationals, successfully completing over three million man-hours with zero lost time injuries.

The addition of the 1.2 Mt/y BIOX Expansion, with an initial capital cost of $290 million, is expected to add 194,000 oz/y of incremental production over the first five years, lifting Sabodala-Massawa to top-tier status with expected production of 360-400,000 oz at an AISC of between $750-850/oz in FY 2024, increasing to above 400,000 oz from 2025.

Resourcing Tomorrow

Major miners join Resourcing Tomorrow lineup

Representatives from the world’s largest mining companies Anglo American, BHP, Glencore, Rio Tinto and Vale have confirmed their attendance for this year’s Resourcing Tomorrow event, in London, event organisers say.

These attendees will join other leading mining companies including AngloGold Ashanti, Antofagasta Minerals, Barrick, B2 Gold, Eldorado Gold, Endeavour Mining, Freeport-McMoRan, Newmont, Sibanye-Stillwater and Teck Resources.

As Europe’s largest mining event, Resourcing Tomorrow: Accelerating the Energy Transition takes place in London on November 28-30 and is poised to be yet another agenda-setting edition for the industry, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange among professionals in the field, event organisers say.

Resourcing Tomorrow unites all stakeholders in the mining industry, including global mining and energy companies, investors, government delegations, researchers, educators, regulators, suppliers and operators. The conference program will provide 100-plus sessions in which all of the aforementioned miners will participate, giving attendees the opportunity to engage and network with leaders and industry specialists from around the world.

The event will draw participants from more than 100 countries, including Australia, USA, UK, Canada, India, Brazil, South Africa, Ghana, Chile, Nigeria, Peru and Germany, demonstrating its international appeal and the global significance of the mining industry, organisers say.

With the increasing pace of change and emerging technologies in the mining industry, Resourcing Tomorrow will focus on the future of our industry and presents a unique opportunity for international representatives of the world’s leading resource economies to meet, find new partners, discuss current challenges, and share the latest research, technology and best practice.

International Mining is a media sponsor of Resourcing Tomorrow.

VoltVision moves to Phase 2 of digitising Endeavour’s West African gold mine power networks

VoltVision, a UK-based specialist in digitised industrial power networks, says it has completed the first phase of a program to digitise the power networks at Endeavour Mining’s six West African gold mines.

The project has been designed to help maximise the efficiency of Endeavour’s electrical power systems, enabling it to improve power quality, increase uptime and reduce CO2 emissions, while lowering energy consumption and operating costs, VoltVision said.

Endeavour has identified significant power efficiency gains and cost savings as the project has been rolled out. VoltVision has progressed to Phase 2 of the roll-out, which is focusing on condition monitoring, failure prevention and further power reduction analysis.

Back In May 2022, VoltVision announced that the first phase of a pioneering energy efficiency and operational enhancement project at Endeavour Mining’s Houndé Mine in Burkina Faso had been completed.

VoltVision says its V-Cube data modules represent the only commercially available electrical data analytics system in the mining industry able to be both installed, operated and managed remotely, requiring no site visits from Voltvision personnel.

Manoli Yannaghas, VoltVision Managing Director, said: “Because our technology is plug-and-play, Phase 1 was installed successfully by Endeavour’s own engineers, without any site visits from us or disruption to production. It also proved its suitability for remote and hostile environments.”

VoltVision’s digitisation program works by retrofitting its V-Cube data modules to virtually any electrical asset, connecting them to the cloud and VoltVision’s ViVid platform. The V-Cube extracts detailed system and/or asset performance data 24/7, which is then stored in the cloud, reducing the cost of in-situ historians databases, the company says. Its advanced analytical capabilities convert this data into actionable information for use by management teams, which is available through dashboards and alerts.

VoltVision’s ViVid platform

Yannaghas added: “Digitising industrial power networks, including high voltage, can deliver immediate savings of up to 15% of annual static energy costs, plus a host of benefits including greater reliability and lower carbon emissions.

“Our solution converts previously stranded assets into actively monitored elements of a cloud-based IoT system capable of analysing massive amounts of data with minimal infrastructure investment. This gives users unprecedented visibility of power consumption, quality, emissions and costs, so they can make intelligence-based management decisions.”

Mota-Engil seals Endeavour Mining Lafigué gold project contract

Portugal-based contract mining firm Mota-Engil says its Africa subsidiary has signed a mining contract for the Lafigué project in Côte d’Ivoire worth some $600 million.

Lafigué is in the north-central part of the country, some 500 km from Abidjan, within the northern end of the Oumé-Fetekro greenstone belt.

Endeavour launched construction ofn its 80%-owned project in October, following completion of a definitive feasibility study that outlined a project able to produce approximately 200,000 oz/y at an all-in sustaining cost of $871/oz over its initial 12.8-year mine life. This featured a six-stage open-pit mine amenable to conventional open-pit, drill and blast mining.

Mining is due to occur in 10-m benches, with double batters to achieve the final 20-m bench heights. Ore mining will occur in three to four flitches, selectively using smaller loading equipment in order to decrease dilution. The study detailed that diesel excavators and trucks will be used for loading and haulage, with a fleet comprising 400-t-class face shovels to load 180-t capacity dump trucks for waste mining, and 200-t-class excavators to load 180-t capacity dump trucks for ore mining.

First gold production is expected early in the September quarter of 2024.

The mining services to be carried out by Mota-Engil under the contract includes mine development, pit dewatering, free digging, drilling, blasting, loading and hauling of ore and waste, it says.

The works are scheduled to start in December 2023 and will have a duration of 60 months.

Endeavour Mining launches construction of Lafigué gold project

Endeavour Mining has launched the construction of its 80%-owned Lafigué project on the Fetekro property in Côte d’Ivoire, following completion of a definitive feasibility study that outlined a project able to produce approximately 200,000 oz/y at an all-in sustaining cost of $871/oz over its initial 12.8-year mine life.

Based on the DFS recommendation, an upsized 4 Mt/y carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant capacity has been selected to process the ore from the Lafigué deposit, which will be a six-stage open-pit mine.

The Lafigué deposit is a near surface orebody amenable to conventional open-pit, drill and blast mining, which will be carried out by contractors, Endeavour says.

Mining will occur in 10-m benches, with double batters to achieve the final 20-m bench heights. Ore mining will occur in three to four flitches, selectively using smaller loading equipment in order to decrease dilution.

Diesel excavators and trucks will be used for loading and haulage, with a fleet comprising 400-t-class face shovels to load 180-t capacity dump trucks for waste mining, and 200-t-class excavators to load 180-t capacity dump trucks for ore mining.

Ore will be processed via the 4 M/y processing plant based on only a fresh ore feed. Over the life of mine, the plant will be fed with 94.2% fresh ore and 5.8% oxide and transitional ore with the proportion of oxide and transitional ore remaining below 30% at any time.

A two-stage crushing followed by high-pressure grinding roll (HPGR) and ball milling circuit is planned. A primary jaw crusher will crush ore to a coarse crush size, followed by secondary cone crusher to produce an intermediate crushed product where 80% passes 25 mm. This will feed to a crushed ore stockpile that feeds the HPGR circuit. Ore will then be passed through a conventional ball mill and milled to 80% passing 106 μm.

The milled ore will pass through a gravity circuit for separation and recovery of coarse free gold, to produce a gravity concentrate for cyanidation and electrowinning that can be smelted to produce gold doré. High gravity recovery of approximately 70% is estimated for fresh ore at Lafigué. The remaining milled ore will be screened and passed to a CIL circuit containing one pre-leach tank and six CIL tanks in series for leaching and adsorption. Leach residence time will be approximately 36 hours.

Following leaching and adsorption gold will be recovered from activated carbon by elution, electrowinning and gold smelting to produce gold doré.

Extensive and representative metallurgical testwork has indicated that gold is free milling with very high gravity and leach extraction potential, with a projected gold recovery rate of 95% over the life of mine.

Lafigué construction is underway with first gold production expected early in the September quarter of 2024.

Sebastien de Montessus, President and CEO, said: “We are ideally positioned to launch the construction of Lafigué, given our net cash position, the continued strong performance of our operations, and our success in de-risking the Sabadola-Massawa Expansion with a significant portion of the capital already committed on-budget. Moreover, we are seeing reduced inflationary pressures and favourable foreign exchange rates compared to earlier in the year.”

Patrick Bouisset, Executive Vice President Exploration and Growth, said: “The Lafigué discovery is a great example of how we can create significant value. For a modest exploration investment of $31 million, which represents a discovery cost of $12/oz, we have added a new cornerstone asset to our portfolio. To continue to source our projects organically, we have increased our greenfield exploration efforts, which, over recent months, have resulted in significant success at our Tanda-Iguela property in Côte d’Ivoire, where we expect to publish a maiden resource later this year.”

Voltvision brings energy efficiency enhancements to Endeavour’s Hounde mine

Voltvision, the high voltage (HV) electrical data analytics business, has announced the successful completion of Phase 1 of what it says is a pioneering energy efficiency and operational enhancement project at Endeavour Mining’s Houndé Mine in Burkina Faso.

The results of this initial phase have proved so constructive that Voltvision has been commissioned to roll out the project to all of Endeavour Mining’s mines and development projects across West Africa, it said.

This project hinges on Voltvision’s big data software solution, a program that has been designed by mining specialists and engineers to optimise energy consumption and improve predictive maintenance on all high voltage equipment used on mine sites. This software is coupled with a data extraction cube, a secure ‘plug-and-play’ analytics device installed on a mine’s network. This device extracts and transmits hundreds of energy-related data points to the cloud-based software using Wi-Fi /4G networks, Voltvision explained.

Manoli Yannaghas, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Voltvison, says: “The Phase One roll out of this project was intended to provide high resolution data extraction in support of existing data systems presented in mobile- and PC-based dashboards. This allowed the mine’s technical team to monitor incoming grid power quality and the power quality across the Houndé power system. It has also allowed the accurate recording and logging of power usage as well as the movement from source to point of use again across the whole HV and MV networks.

“Phase 1 of the project commenced in December 2021 when the Cube device was remotely installed across Hounde’s high voltage electrical network, with assistance from the Endeavour team. The ‘plug-and-play’ nature of the device allowed the project to commence with minimal hassle and zero downtime in production.

“In the four months since this installation, a wide range of data points, numbering more than 200 individual points, have been collected and analysed. Early analysis of this data has facilitated a clear and comprehensive understanding of how the mine’s electrical network is behaving and how power is utilised in real time. This has made it possible for the Endeavour team to identify hidden problems and inefficiencies and understand what changes are required to achieve greater energy efficiency across the entire operation. The correction of such efficiencies can deliver quick cost savings and CO2 reduction as well as edging closer to operational excellence.”

The data recorded in this initial phase is a solid foundation for Phase 2, which is due to commence in May, he added.

“Phase 2 is intended to identify further power savings opportunities; develop early warning mechanisms for grid outages; and extract demonstrable Scope 1 and 2 GHG emission numbers. Voltvision will also provide highly accurate asset management services on capital equipment using algorithms it has developed with leading machine learning universities to provide advanced warnings of performance changes and fault development.”

Voltvision’s electrical management software is in the process of being rolled out across the rest of Endeavour’s operations, as mentioned.

Yannaghas concluded: “Through this initial Phase 1, we have formed an excellent working relationship with Endeavour Mining and are exceptionally pleased with the results produced thus far. We look forward to further engagement and assisting the company in optimising its HV electrical asset base, realising cost savings and facilitating the decarbonisation of its mine and project portfolio.”

Geodrill to carry out 350,000 m of drilling for Endeavour Mining

Geodrill Ltd says it has been awarded significant multi-rig long-term drilling contracts with Endeavour Mining, which will see it carry out work across its West Africa gold operations.

The contracts with Endeavour Mining are for a total 350,000 m of exploration and mine reserve drilling across its key West African operations for a period of two years. This will see Geodrill use  up to 10 drill rigs from the company’s existing fleet.

The contracts are expected to generate revenues of $31 million over the term of the contracts.

Geodrill currently has a rig fleet of 71 drill rigs operating in West Africa, Egypt and Peru.

Geodrill President and CEO, Dave Harper, said: “This third significant contract win, within a relatively short time frame, and again with a key valued top tier gold producer, underscores the strength of our reputation and an endorsement of our drilling expertise in our core geographic region and beyond. Most importantly, these contracts add top-line revenue growth this year extending through to 2024 which will provide an even stronger base to build on.”

Endeavour Mining has operating assets across Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso and a strong portfolio of advanced development projects and exploration assets in the highly prospective Birimian Greenstone Belt.

Endeavour looks to consolidate West Africa gold sector with SEMAFO acquisition

Endeavour Mining is to acquire fellow West Africa-focused gold producer SEMAFO in a friendly, all-share deal that, Endeavour says, will create a top 15 global gold producer and the largest yellow metal miner in West Africa.

The deal, which both sets of Board of Directors have unanimously approved, values SEMAFO at C$1 billion ($694 million) and comes with a 27.2% premium based on the 20-day volume weighted average price of both companies for the period ended March 20, 2020. It would see existing Endeavour and SEMAFO shareholders hold around 70% and 30%, respectively, of the combined company on a “fully-diluted in-the-money basis”.

Such a transaction comes less than six months since SEMAFO suspended operations at its Boungou open-pit mine, in Burkina Faso, following a deadly attack on a public road in the Est region. This led to a seven-week suspension of the mine in 2019. This incident followed on the heels of a pit wall failure at its Mana mine, also in Burkina Faso, in August, that led to a 10-week suspension.

Endeavour, meanwhile, had its hopes of merging with fellow Africa gold producer, Centamin, dashed earlier this year after Endeavour President & CEO, Sebastien de Montessus, said the quality of information received during the accelerated due diligence process had been insufficient to allow the company to be confident in proceeding with a “firm offer” for Centamin.

On a pro-forma basis, a combined Endeavour and SEMAFO would have more than 1 Moz of gold production in 2020 (based on current company guidance), placing it among the top 15 gold producers globally, while all-in sustaining costs (AISC) would be below $900/oz, placing it within the bottom third of the industry cost curve, the companies said.

Assets would include the Ity, Houndé, Agbaou and Karma mines from Endeavour (which produced 651,000 oz at an AISC of $818/oz in 2019) and the Boungou and Mana mines from SEMAFO (which produced 340,900 oz at an AISC of $724/oz in 2019).

Endeavour-SEMAFO would also have 10.5 Moz of reserves and 20.7 Moz of measure and indicated resources (inclusive of reserves), plus an additional 6.3 Moz of inferred resources.

It would be strategically positioned as the largest gold producer in both Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, which account for two-thirds of the highly prospective West African Birimian Greenstone Belt, they said.

It would also consolidate the Houndé belt in Burkina Faso to create a “world-class mining district with two mines, exploration upside and strong future development potential”, they said.

Endeavour said influential investor La Mancha will continue to be a highly supportive cornerstone shareholder, committing to invest $100 million, although decreasing its overall stake from around 31% in Endeavour to about 25% in the combined entity (calculated on a pro-forma basis using current share prices), to “provide for a larger free float and greater stock liquidity”.

These M&A discussions have been going on for some time, according to Endeavour.

In early 2019, both companies engaged in a mutual dialogue in order to evaluate the merits of a business combination. The dialogue included extensive mutual due diligence as well as discussion of potential terms of a transaction, with a final proposal in May 2019. At that time, it was not possible to agree on terms which appropriately shared the risks and rewards of a combination.

In early 2020, discussions between Endeavour and SEMAFO recommenced. Endeavour’s management team completed on-site due diligence at SEMAFO’s operations in Burkina Faso during February 2020, including a comprehensive assessment of security, operations and exploration.

Both companies also re-opened data rooms for mutual confirmatory due diligence, including visits and, following collaborative discussions, confirmed their shared strategic vision and desire to complete a combination subject to negotiation of agreeable terms, they said. Negotiations proceeded, culminating in agreement on the terms of the transaction announced today.

For Endeavour, pursuant to the rules of the TSX, the transaction will require approval by a simple majority of the votes cast by its shareholders. In addition, shareholders of Endeavour will be asked to approve the issuance of Endeavour ordinary shares to La Mancha. For SEMAFO, meanwhile, the transaction will require the approval of 66.6% of votes cast by its shareholders.

It is anticipated that both shareholder meetings and the closing of the transaction will take place in the June quarter of 2020.

Africa first for Gekko’s Carbon Scout technology

Gekko Systems says Endeavour Mining’s Ity gold operation, in Cote d’Ivoire, has become the first mine in Africa to install a Gekko Carbon Scout.

The self-contained Carbon Scout device collects slurry samples from carbon-in-pulp (CIP) and carbon-in-leach (CIL) tanks to determine the distribution of the activated carbon in the pulp for each tank, to an accuracy of ± 0.5 grams of carbon per litre of pulp, according to Gekko.

Gekko, following a collaboration agreement signed with Curtin University for the development and commercialisation of a cutting-edge carbon management technology, went commercial with the technology in 2017. At that point, the company said the product promised to quickly become critical for gold process plant optimisation and for minimising soluble gold losses on tails.

By advancing the accuracy, regularity and consistency of sampling, the self-contained, ground-level unit will improve measurements in CIL and CIP circuits, Gekko said, adding that the Carbon Scout will also greatly improve the safety of operations by reducing operator exposure to cyanide and other hazards.

As recently as November, Endeavour announced it had completed a planned CIL plant expansion at Ity, upping capacity from 4 Mt/y to 5 Mt/y. This followed the commissioning of the 4 Mt/y plant in April 2019.

Endeavour Mining pours first gold from Ity CIL project in Côte d’Ivoire

Endeavour Mining Corp says it has poured first gold from the Ity CIL project in Côte d’Ivoire, ahead of schedule and under budget.

The first pour yielded around 1,800 oz of gold, while some 135,160 t of ore has been processed since being first introduced into the CIL processing plant on February 20.

The initial estimated budget was $412 million, with first gold pour coming four months ahead of the previous schedule.

Endeavour said commercial production was expected to be declared early in the June quarter with performance trial testing soon to commence, as the crushing, milling and CIL circuits have quickly attained a stable nameplate capacity of 4 Mt/y.

Following the performance tests already conducted, Endeavour launched optimisation and de-bottlenecking work which is expected to increase the plant nameplate capacity by 1 Mt/y to 5 Mt/y, at a minimal cost of $10-15 million.

The volumetric upsize work mainly comprises an upgrade in pipes and pumps, and a second 50-t oxygen plant with no additional mining fleet required. “These plant upgrades are expected to be completed during scheduled plant maintenance shut-downs throughout the next six months,” the company said.

Sébastien de Montessus, President and CEO, said: “As we approach commercial production, I would like to acknowledge the hard work of our in-house construction team for successfully delivering the Ity CIL project ahead of schedule and under-budget, with an exceptional safety record of over 8.5 million hours without a lost time injury.

“This first gold pour and the remarkably quick ramp-up period is a transformational event for Endeavour as the Ity CIL project will quickly contribute to group’s cash generation potential.

“Given its current 15-year mine life and strong exploration potential, our ability to increase the plant size by 1 Mt/y to 5 Mt/y for minimal additional capex represents a very compelling investment and is in line with our focus on capital allocation efficiency and return on capital employed criteria. With this upgrade, Ity has the potential to produce circa 300,000 oz of gold per annum at a low all-in sustaining cost (AISC).”

The Ity CIL project capex spend is tracking under-budget compared to the initial guidance of $412 million.

“As construction is tracking ahead of schedule and below budget, Endeavour decided to conduct additional works such as the construction of a fuel farm, building exploration facilities, and an additional $7 million of crop compensation and resettlement related to prospective exploration grounds,” Endeavour said. “Due to these additional works, and the $10-15 million required for the above-stated plant upgrade to 5 Mt/y, the total project capex spend is expected to amount to circa-$420 million.”

An $11 million exploration programme totalling around 71,000 m of drilling has been planned for 2019, with the aim of delineating additional resources at the Le Plaque target, and testing other targets such as Floleu, Daapleu SW and Samuel.

As previously guided, Ity is expected to produce 160,000-200,000 oz in 2019 at an AISC of $525-590/oz, with the bottom-end of production guidance corresponding to the 4 Mt/y nameplate capacity while the top-end factors in upsides such as an earlier start date, an expedited ramp-up and the plant producing above its nameplate.