PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior Tietto Minerals has poured its first gold at the Abujar gold project, in Côte d’Ivoire.
The ASX-listed company poured a 12.89 kg, or 414 oz, bar during its first smelt, with the first gold pour achieved within 12 months of breaking ground and the start of construction.
“We are so excited and proud to have reached this transformational milestone at Abujar to become West Africa’s newest gold producer,” said Tietto MD Dr Caigen Wang.
“I thank our build team at Tietto, led by COO Matt Wilcox, and all our contractors, suppliers and stakeholders who have contributed to make this achievement possible. We gave ourselves a tight timeframe to achieve our gold production goal and it’s incredibly pleasing to see it come to fruition.
“With our first gold poured, we now look to ramping up to commercial production this quarter as we continue our drilling programme and progress feasibility study on APG Heap Leach project in tandem to grow our Abujar project even further to realise its full potential and create value for our company, our shareholders and for the people of Cote d’Ivoire.”
The openpit operation at Abujar is expected to have a mine life of over ten years, while an underground operation would extend the project life to 12 years. The addition of an underground operation is expected to add a further $48.4-million in capital costs from the beginning of year six of the operations.
In its first year, Abujar is expected to produce 260 000 oz of gold.