Hummingbird Resources has announced the first gold pour at the Kouroussa gold mine in Guinea, achieving the milestone ahead of the end of June quarter schedule and on budget.

Commissioning at Kouroussa commenced in early May 2023 and, having achieved first gold pour, the mine is now expected to ramp up to commercial production during the second half of 2023.

Kouroussa, Hummingbird says, is a high-grade, low-cost mine and is the company’s second operating gold asset in West Africa. It is expected to produce an average of 120,000-140,000 oz of gold for the first three years of commercial production, and average 100,000 oz/y over the current life of mine at an all-in sustaining cost profile of circa-$1,000/oz. The Kouroussa processing plant is a 1 Mt/y capacity standard carbon-in-leach plant.

The company said it has built up a run of mine pad stockpile of 120,000 t for on-going commissioning and ramp-up.

Dan Betts, CEO of Hummingbird, said: “The achievement of first gold pour at our second operating mine, Kouroussa in Guinea, is a major strategic milestone for the company, transforming Hummingbird into a multi-asset, multi-jurisdiction gold producer, that more than doubles our production profile to 200,000-plus oz per annum. Kouroussa is the second mine Hummingbird has built on time and on budget, made up of a construction team of African and predominately (80%) Guinean personnel.”