Fortuna betting on West Africa to boost gold output

Séguéla, Côte d’Ivoire – West Africa is poised to play a pivotal role in Fortuna Mining’s (TSX: FVI; NYSE: FSM) drive to boost annual gold output past the 500,000 oz. mark across all operations by 2030.

Vancouver-based Fortuna is ramping up exploration efforts at the Séguéla mine in Côte d’Ivoire – the largest of its four operations – in a bid to expand the resource. Last month, the company reported an 11% increase in contained reserve ounces for Séguéla, a doubling of indicated resources and a 15% rise in inferred ounces compared with a December 2024 resource. 

“Continued exploration success in the last two years has created a pathway for growth here at Séguéla and Diamba Sud,” CEO Jorge Ganoza told journalists during a site visit of the Ivorian operation in late November. “It’s in our control to meet or exceed our 500,000 oz. ambition. We have a solid geological foundation and the experienced teams in place and the balance-sheet strength to make this growth low risk.”

Séguéla’s estimated 2025 output of 134,000–147,000 oz. gives it small to mid-tier status among West African peers, in league with Orezone Gold’s (TSX: ORE; US-OTC: ORZCF) Bomboré Mine in Burkina Faso. Fortuna would likely become a mid-tier player in the region by reaching the 500,000 oz. threshold.

Asset sales

Fortuna is counting on Séguéla and the Diamba Sud project in Senegal to help it reverse a drop in output triggered by the sale of mines in Mexico and Burkina Faso earlier this year. It expects to produce up to 339,000 oz. gold in 2025, down 25% from a record 456,000 oz. last year.

Selling the San Jose mine in Mexico and Burkina Faso’s Yaramoko operation cost the company up to 120,000 oz. of annual output, the CEO said. The move “created some noise” with investors, he acknowledged.

“The two assets were not meeting our criteria to be in the portfolio. We couldn’t project a decade in life of mine assets,” Ganoza said. Still, he stressed, “we want to be playing offence. We want to be opening mines, not closing mines.”

Séguéla could soon account for about 40%, or 200,000 oz., of Fortuna’s 500,000 oz. target, National Bank Financial mining analyst Mohamed Sidibé wrote in a recent note. Diamba Sud would generate about 150,000 oz., compared with 90,000 oz. for Argentina’s Lindero and about 30,000 oz. for the Caylloma project in Peru. The 500,000 oz. annual target is achievable by the end of the decade, Sidibé said.

Underground mine

Fortuna has five drill rigs turning at Séguéla. It’s working to upgrade the site’s Sunbird deposit’s inferred resources to indicated, and a study on building a possible underground mine is ongoing.

Sunbird underground holds 3.6 million tonnes grading 4.34 grams gold per tonne for 502,000 oz. in indicated resources that could eventually be converted to reserves.

Open-pit mining at Sunbird, the biggest of eight deposits on the property, is scheduled to start in 2026.

“Once in production, we see Sunbird acting as a cornerstone for the remaining life of mine, to be supplemented by other smaller, high-grade deposits processed at the central mill,” Scotia Capital mining analyst Eric Winmill said in a note after visiting the property.

Growth opportunities

Fortuna is pursuing expansion opportunities across its 620-sq.-km Séguéla land package. Crews have identified more than 30 targets still untested by significant bedrock drilling.

“We want to continue to build the pipeline so that we don’t get to a point where in five years we have completely run out of mineable deposits,” Séguéla’s general manager, Peter McLean, told reporters during the site visit. “Our program has been very successful to date.”

Management is also bullish on Diamba Sud’s potential.

Less than a year would be needed for Fortuna to recoup its projected $283.2 million investment if the Senegalese mine goes ahead, according to a preliminary economic assessment released in October. Using a gold price of $2,750 per oz. (C$3,843) and a discount rate of 5%, Diamba Sud would have an after‑tax net present value of $563 million, an internal rate of return of 72% and a payback period of about 0.8 years, Fortuna said.

Fortuna is looking to secure environmental certification for the mine in next year’s first quarter, Ganoza said.

“Diamba Sud is an important part of the portfolio,” he said.

African investments

Fortuna’s efforts to grow its footprint in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal build on other recent West Africa investments.

In June, the company spent $6 million to buy a minority stake in Canadian miner Awalé Resources (TSX-V: ARIC), which is advancing the Odienné project in Côte d’Ivoire. Four months later, it signed a deal with Australia’s Desoto Resources (ASX: DES) to jointly explore the Siguiri basin in northeastern Guinea.

 “These are not disconnected deals,” Ganoza said. “We are positioning ourselves in the Siguiri Basin for exploration. Along with Latin America, West Africa is a region of choice for us.”