Name of the Project
Ity carbon-in-leach (CIL) gold project.

Location
Côte d’Ivoire.

Client
Endeavour Mining.

Project Description
A feasibility study on the Ity CIL project has demonstrated the potential for the mine to become a long-life, low-cost flagship asset.

The project has a 14-year mine life, based on current reserves, which has increased to 1.9-million ounces, an increase of 31%, compared with the September 2015 prefeasibility study. Upisde potential remains with further conversion of known resources, inclusion of new discoveries and ongoing exploration on several near-mine targets.

The mill size has also increased from two-million tonnes a year to three-million tonnes a year, lifting yearly production.

The selected strategy is to mine and process Daapleu and Ity Flat higher-grade ore early, while stockpiling low-grade ore for treatment when openpit mining operations are complete. As a result, the mining period is nine years, followed by the processing of stockpiled low-grade ore for another five years. This strategy has been established through pit optimisation work, which has indicated that parallel processing of the Daapleu sulphide ores with free milling oxide ores will give the best return.

The higher-grade Daapleu and Ity Flat material will be mined and processed first, with lower-grade Daapleu and Ity Flat material stockpiled during this time and processed once mining ends. Mill feed requirements will be supplemented successively with oxide material from Mont Ity, Gbeitouo, Walter and Zia NE, and existing ore stockpiled from current heap-leach operations.

The mine planning, resource and cost estimation for the feasibility study is based on an owner-operated mining operation using 90 t haul trucks.

The conventional gravity circuit/CIL plant is designed to process a nominal capacity of three-million tonnes a year based on a constant ore blend estimated at 60% primary and 40% oxide.

The process plant will comprise a vibrating grizzly/single-stage primary crushing circuit that produces a crushed product size of (P80 160 mm), followed by a coarse ore stockpile area that supplies the semiautogenous/ball mill grinding circuit.

The product size of the grinding circuit is (P80 75 μm). The gravity testwork has indicated that a portion of the gold in CIL feed can be recovered using gravity gold recovery methods. A gravity concentrator and in-line local reactor have been included in the design. The CIL circuit comprises six CIL tanks containing carbon for gold and silver adsorption, and a 15 t split Anglo elution circuit. Electrowinning and induction furnace smelting will complete the gold doré production process.

A cyanide detoxification circuit is included in the process facility design for treatment of process residue before discharge to the 46-million-tonne tailings storage facility (TSF), located adjacent to the processing facility.

Feed water for the processing facility will come from various sources, such as pit dewatering bores, the Cavally river for make-up and decant return from the TSF.

Jobs to be Created
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of $411-million and an internal rate of return of 36%, with a payback of 2.1 years based on a gold price of $1 250/oz.

Value
Upfront capital costs have been estimated at $307-million, including contingency of $26-million.

Duration
Mining is scheduled to start three months before the start of the processing plant to prestrip the pits and stockpile ore.

Latest Developments
Before making a final investment decision in the first half of 2017, Endeavour must complete ownership discussions to increase Endeavour’s stake in the Ity asset.

Further, the mining permits for the Gbeitouo and Daapleu deposits need to be awarded.

The preproject optimisation phase and completion of the sulphide processing investigation must start. In addition, the feasibility study needs to include the recent high-grade Bakatouo and Colline Sud discoveries and expected further resource conversion of existing deposits.

Endeavour will explore the potential to run the CIL and heap-leaching operations in parallel for the first few years.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Endeavour Mining, tel +33 1 70 38 36 50 or email info@endeavourmining.com.