JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed West African gold producer Hummingbird Resources has successfully ramped up gold production at its opencast Yanfolila mine and plant, in Mali, with 9 912 oz poured in March.

The Yanfolila project produced 18 785 oz of gold in the quarter ended March 31, with the mine and plant operating at nameplate capacity by the end of the quarter.

Commercial production was declared on April 1.

Hummingbird sold 11 941 oz of gold at an average price of $1 332/oz in the March quarter.

“Yanfolila had a strong start to the year with the ramp-up phase going to plan and with a significant increase in performance throughout the quarter. The process plant is operating to design specification and the grade and recoveries of gold we are seeing are solid and consistent with expectations.

“Progress has been strong and I am pleased that we are able to declare commercial production from April 1, with the plant having operated at over 95% of nameplate for the month of March and continuing to operate at 100% throughout April,” said CEO Dan Betts.

The focus remains on continually refining and improving Yanfolila into a consistent low-cost operation. 

Additionally, an immediate priority this year is to aggressively explore and develop the near-mine resources to look to convert opportunities and resources into reserves and extend the mine life.

“We have committed to spend up to 15% of our free cash flow into this activity, which is anticipated to be about $8-million,” Betts added.

During the first quarter, the plant was ramped up to full design capacity. The design feed rate to the plant was achieved and sustained in February. 

While the plant feed was initially lower grade to avoid gold loss in the event of any start-up problems, the feed grade to the plant was also brought up to be in line with the life-of-mine average grade through February.

Gold recoveries from the carbon-in-leach circuit have been excellent right from the initial start-up, with recoveries consistently exceeding design figures at over 95%.

While the plant is still being fed predominately oxide ore, the secondary crusher circuit was successfully commissioned and also ramped up to design capacity in February. To facilitate the start-up of this circuit, a batch of harder laterite ore was put through the plant.

“The ramp-up of the entire plant has been successful owing to the flexible design and the experience of the construction team – both in-house and in our engineering contractor SENET.

“Yanfolila has a 95% Malian work force with the supervisors and control room operators having been recruited from similar gold operations within Mali, adding important local experience. The plant operators are from local villages, which is in line with the Company’s objective to provide local employment,” said Betts.

Through on-site training and good supervision, these teams are now operating the plant effectively, and have validated Hummingbird’s plan to hire locally.

“Additionally, we are very pleased to report that 25% of our plant operators are women, against an industry average of around 8%, and we will continually look to maintain and expand this policy of local hiring and where possible attempting to get as close to a gender balance as possible given our industry and operating location.”

Operations focused mainly in the south and centre of the Komana East pit. Work has also commenced at the north, allowing for higher daily production. Better grade reconciliation results were achieved from the southern end of the pit, which allowed for higher-grade ore delivery to the run-of-mine (RoM) pad.

The RoM pad extension was completed successfully and now has an extended capacity of 330 000 t. This will allow the appropriate management of ore stockpiles and blending to the process plant through the wet season in the third quarter of this year.

Hummingbird has set its production guidance for this year at between 105 000 oz and 115 000 oz.

Meanwhile, the company noted that its 2018 exploration strategy aimed to bring as much of the approximately 1.5-million ounces of resources, not currently in reserves, into the life-of-mine plan. 

It was conducting exploration of additional area close to its Komana East pit, also mainly basalt and mafic dyke-hosted gold deposits.

“Hummingbird also has more than 2 000 km² of exploration ground in southeast Liberia. This offers a huge upside potential for future gold discoveries in a still largely unexplored, yet highly prospective, region of the Birimian gold province.

“Hummingbird has identified 140 targets near the Dugbe gold project for systematic exploration,” said Betts.

Additionally, it is intended that the Hummingbird Single Mine Origin Coin will be available to buy before the end of June, with further details to be announced about the launch of the coins in due course.