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Essakane mine, Burkina Faso

8th April 2022

By: Sheila Barradas

Creamer Media Research Coordinator & Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Name
Essakane mine.

Location
The mine straddles the boundary of the Oudalan and Seno provinces, in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso.

Mine Owner/s
IAMGOLD.

Brief Description
The Essakane deposit is located within a 100.2 km2 mining permit, which is surrounded by six exploration permits covering 1 266 km2.

The mine blends two designated ore types, with fresh rock representing about 80% of mill feed and the remaining 20% predominantly saprolite material.

Brief History
IAMGOLD started management of the Essakane project following the acquisition of Orezone Resources in February 2009. The mine began commercial production in July 2010.

Primary Metals/Minerals
Gold.

Secondary Metals/Minerals
None stated.

Geology/Mineralisation
The Essakane mine is situated in the Paleoproterozoic Gorouol greenstone belt, in northern Burkina Faso. The local stratigraphy can be subdivided into a succession of lower-greenschist facies metasediments (argillites, arenites and volcaniclastics), conglomerates and subordinate felsic volcanics, and an overlying Tarkwaian-like succession comprising siliciclastic metasediments and conglomerate. Each succession contains intercalated mafic intrusive units that collectively comprise up to 40% of the total stratigraphic section.

Essakane is an orogenic gold deposit characterised by quartz-carbonate stockwork vein arrays and is hosted within the lower metasedimentary sequence. The deposit occurs in an upright asymmetric anticline, which plunges shallowly to the north-west. The highest concentration of quartz veins and gold mineralisation occurs in the 50 m to 70 m thick ‘main arenite unit’, and spatially in the hinge zone and eastern fold limb of the host anticline.

Reserves
Total proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2021, were estimated at 95.46-million tonnes grading 0.9 g/t gold.

Resources
Total measured, indicated and inferred resources as at December 31, 2021, were estimated at 32.93-million tonnes grading 0.5 g/t, 75.67-million tonnes grading 1.1 g/t gold and 7.78-million tonnes grading 1.5 g/t gold.

Mining Method
Conventional drill, blast, load-and-haul surface mining with an owner fleet.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment
Essakane ore is processed using two stages of crushing, an SABC grinding and carbon-in-leach gold plant. The mill has a nameplate capacity of 10.8-million tonnes a year.

The mine also features a 22 ha solar photovoltaic plant that produces 25 000 MWh/y of electricity, while also reducing carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 16.5 t, eliminating 5.5-million litres of fuel use a year and 120 fuel delivery trucks a year to sustain the mine’s 400 000 oz/y of production.

Prospects
The mine is considering energy distribution and energy balance on site to increase the use of solar power, and thereby offsetting the need to use power from the heavy-fuel-oil generators that are 43% efficient.

The mine is also pursuing incremental projects, and has a continuous pipeline of optimisations to operations to reduce energy consumption and improve efficiency.

The company is also exploring liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a fuel source, but, given the short life-of-mine, it is not yet prepared to say it will integrate LNG.

Contact Details
IAMGOLD
Email info@iamgold.com
Website https://www.iamgold.com

Sources
Mining Weekly. Iamgold reflects on impact of doubling of Essakane solar plant (March 11, 2022).

IAMGOLD. IAMGOLD reports 2021 attributable reserves of 12.4 -million ounces and attributable M&I resources of 22.1-million ounces (February 23, 2022).
IAMGOLD. Website https://www.iamgold.com [accessed March 9, 2022].

 

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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