Iamgold’s (IMG-T, IAG-N) first greenfield project as operator in Africa — the Essakane gold mine in northeastern Burkina Faso — has been built six weeks ahead of schedule, the company reports.
The company’s second flagship mine started processing its first ore in late June and will be a long-life, low-cost operation.
The news sent Iamgold’s shares in Toronto up 20¢ to $18.76 apiece with 2.6 million shares changing hands.
(The Toronto-based gold producer has a 52-week trading range of $9.99-$21.95 and 371.5 million shares outstanding.)
Essakane is expected to produce more than 500,000 oz. gold from startup to the end of 2011.
Life-of-mine gold production estimates remain at 315,000 oz. per year through to 2018, with average cash costs in the US$400-to US$410-per-oz. range.
Commercial production will be achieved on the first of 30 consecutive days on which the amount of ore processed surpasses 445,000 tonnes or 60% of the plant’s design capacity.
Only soft oxide ore will be fed to the plant for the first few months. Construction of the primary crusher will be completed in about six weeks.
Pre-stripping has left a stockpile of about five million tonnes of ore, or six months worth of feed.
Iamgold owns 90% of Essakane with the government of Burkina Faso holding the remainder.
This year the company plans to complete 50,000 metres of delineation and resource expansion drilling along with 17,500 metres of exploration drilling.
The company acquired the Essakane project in February 2009 through its acquisition of Orezone Resources.
Essakane is about 330 km northeast of the capital, Ouagadougou, and 42 km east of the nearest large town and provincial capital, Oudalan, Gorom-Gorom.
The property is comprised of six exploration permits: Tassiri, Alkoma, Gomo, Gossey, Lao Gountour and Korizna, covering about 1,069 sq. km.
Landlocked Burkina Faso is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south and Cte d’Ivoire to the southwest.
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