Name: Ity mine.

Location: The mine is located about 480 km north-west of Abidjan, in southern Côte d'Ivoire.

Mine Owner/s: Endeavour Mining (85%) EDV, Côte d’Ivoire State-owned mining company Société d'Etat pour le Développement Minier de Côte d'Ivoire (10%), Drogba Group (5%).

Brief Description: The Ity openpit gold mine operated as a heap-leach operation until the end of 2018. The mine started transitioning to carbon-in-leach (CIL) production in early 2019.

Brief History: Ity has the longest recorded operating history of any gold mine in Côte d'Ivoire, with gold first discovered near the village of Ity in the 1950s during regional exploration by the Bureau Minière de la France d’Outre-Mer. Initial attempts to recover the gold were unsuccessful, owing to the fineness of the gold and the rheology of the ore. In 1983 the Société Minière d’Ity was incorporated to develop the Flotouo deposit which poured it first gold in 1991. Substantial exploration was done in the 1990s and many of the deposits were discovered or expanded at the time. Since then ownership of the mine has changed several times.

Endeavour currently operates the mine.

Products: Gold.

Geology/Mineralisation: The Ity deposits are located in the lower Proterozoic Birimian formations of the Toulépleu-Ity klippe.

The Toulepleu-Ity klippe is a small remnant of Birimian within the older Archean portion of the West African craton. The Ity area is characterised by a series of granodioritic intrusions into a sedimentary sequence of volcano-sediments and carbonates with a general north-east to south-west strike. The volcanic rocks are generally tuffaceous, with chemistry that ranges from basic to acidic.

All formations have been subjected to regional metamorphism. The deposits of Ity, ZiaNE, and Walter are skarns developed at the contacts of the granodiorite with the carbonates. The remaining in situ deposits are more typical shear-hosted, greenstone deposits.

The Daapleu deposit is characterised by the presence of a rhyolitic intrusive surrounded by a package of volcano sediments. The rhyolite is locally called “daaplite” and is leucocratic (grey to white), microgranular, schistose and rich in micas, essentially a fine grained granite. The Gbeitouo deposit is hosted within volcano-sediments. The Teckraie and Verse Ouest deposits are rock dumps of the now depleted Flotouo (skarn) openpit and are situated on weathered granodiorite. Aires consists of the decomissioned heap-leach pads from the historic operation of the mine.

Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves are estimated at 60.8-million tonnes grading 1.55 g/t gold.

Resources: Total measured and indicated resources, including reserves, are estimated at 73.6-million grading 1.54 g/t gold. Inferred resources are estimated at 19.1-million tonnes grading 1.34 g/t gold.

Mining Method: Openpit/heap-leach, with the mine currently transitioning into an openpit carbon-in-leach operation.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: The mine includes a process plant, a tailings storage facility, an accommodation camp, roads, a mine services area, an openpit mine and mine waste dump.

Prospects: Mining and stacking activities for the Ity heap-leach operation ceased mid-December 2018. Transition preparation and training efforts are under way to shift to carbon-in-leach (CIL) production in early 2019. The shift to CIL is expected to significantly improve the production profile of the mine.

Endeavour started construction of the Ity CIL project in September 2017, with the first gold being poured in on March 19, 2019. The Ity CIL has the potential to extend the Ity mine’s life by more than 14 years at a very low production cost.

Contact Details:
Endeavour Mining
Tel +44 203 011 2723
Email info@endeavourmining.com