JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Karma gold project, in Burkina Faso, was in full construction mode with site development rapidly progressing since its restart in May, Canadian project developer True Gold Mining said on Monday.
Construction of the $131.5-million project remained on schedule for early 2016, with the planned placing of ore on the heap leach pads and first gold pour by the end of the first quarter of next year, True Gold president and CEO Christian Milau said.
The TSX-V-listed West Africa-focused company restarted construction in May after temporarily suspending construction activities in January, when several hundred members from two surrounding communities marched on the mine.
Now, with all required personnel on site and a workforce of over 500 focusing on earthworks and the final assembly of the processing plant, the project was back on track, marked by the commissioning of the mine fleet, comprising six Komatsu 785 trucks, a PC 3000 excavator and a WA800 loader; the completion of the raw water pond excavation; and initial construction of the raw water pipeline.
The company started excavating the stormwater pond, as well as the pregnant leach solution pond, while the assembly of the hard rock crusher, the absorption, desorption and refining plant and structural steel infrastructure kicked off.
Next on the company’s agenda was the assembly of an assay lab, the erection of the cement silos, the commissioning of the remaining three generators and the completion of the power plant.
Meanwhile, the company had about $37.5-million in cash and had drawn down another $14-million of the $100-million available under the Franco-Nevada/Sandstorm Gold Bank joint financing agreement.
This marked the third drawdown, bringing the total amount drawn to $71.6-million.