Canadian mining company Orezone has announced that its Bomboré open-pit gold mine in Burkina Faso has begun commercial production, starting December 1, 2022. The information was released in a press release issued on 1 December 2022 in Vancouver.
Orezone declared commercial production at Bomboré based on the achievement of 30 consecutive days of plant throughput exceeding 70% of the nominal capacity of 14,250 tonnes per day and recovery reaching project design levels of 90%. In November 2022, the plant processed 364,123 tonnes of ore, or 12,137 tonnes per day.
Patrick Downey, President and CEO, said, “Commercial production at Bomboré is a significant milestone and transforms the company into a producer. We congratulate the Bomboré team for their excellent execution in achieving this goal. With our power supply issues now firmly behind us, we are focused on optimising plant performance and steadily increasing throughput and availability with the objective of exceeding design capacity”. Further information will be provided in January 2023.
Orezone believes that Bomboré has a significant resource for future expansion. A drilling programme is underway and, once completed, the company plans to issue an updated mineral resource and reserve statement and a feasibility study. The studies are expected to be completed in June 2023, followed by a production decision, the statement said.
Orezone de Bomboré SA obtained its permit on 30 December 2016. It signed its mining convention with the Burkinabe state on 26 February 2019. On 24 May 2019, the Prime Minister, Christophe Dabiré, launched the construction of the mine.
On the day of the launch, it was said that ore reserves are estimated at 31 tonnes of raw gold with an average grade of 0.76 grams per tonne and a recovery rate of 87%.
It is an open-pit mine with a licence area of 25 km2. The mine was expected to create 700 jobs during construction and 620 direct jobs during operation. Its contribution to the national budget is estimated at 144 billion FCFA in terms of taxes, fees, royalties and duties. It also plans to contribute 7 billion FCFA to the local development mining fund.
In January 2021, Orezone completed the financing of the construction of the mine after raising 96 million dollars from Coris Bank.
Elie KABORE
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