Photo by: Bloomberg
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX- and ASX-listed Endeavour Mining on Friday announced that it had poured the first gold bar from the carbon-in-leach (CIL) and gravity gold circuits at the Agbaou mine, in Côte d'Ivoire.
The company said plant commissioning was progressing ahead of schedule, and that the plant had been ramped up to design throughput levels. It was expected to reach full commercial gold production during the first quarter of 2014.
The first pour was completed significantly ahead of the original construction timetable, with the aim to produce first output early in the New Year.
Endeavour said that the first gold pour had demonstrated that the mine was well into the commissioning phase, with ore reclaim, milling, CIL, Knelson concentrator, Gekko intensive leach reactor, cyanide detoxification and tailings areas all fully commissioned.
“This is a major achievement for the company and a testament to the hard work of our employees in all areas from exploration to operations. Endeavour's project team has taken a feasibility study and grassroots site and built the Agbaou mine in only 16 months.
“This is the second mine in the Endeavour portfolio that our team has built,” CEO Neil Woodyer said.
Agbaou is expected to produce gold at all-in sustaining costs of $800/oz.
The Agbaou mine was expected to deliver about 103 000 oz/y over an eight-year mine life, from a measured and indicated resource of 1.1-million ounces, and a proven and probable reserve of 0.9-million ounces.
The project would be Endeavour’s fourth producing mine and would help to drive production to more than 400 000 oz/y during 2014.