By: Mining weekly

Name of the Project

Sabodala-Massawa gold mine expansion.

Location

About 630 km east-southeast of Dakar, in Senegal.

Project Owner/s

Endeavour Mining acquired a 90% interest in the Sabodala-Massawa mine in February 2021 as part of its acquisition of Teranga Gold Corporation. The remaining 10% of the mine is held by the Senegalese government.

Project Description

The mine comprises several openpit operations on the highly prospective Birimian Greenstone Belt.

Nonrefractory ore is treated at a four-million-tonne-a-year carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant that achieved commercial production in November 2009.

Endeavour expedited the completion of the initial upgrades at the existing CIL plant in 2021. The company did this while advancing the definitive feasibility study for the addition of a refractory ore processing plant to confirm the economic viability of processing the high-grade refractory ores from the Massawa Central Zone and Massawa North Zone deposits.

Endeavour launched the construction of the 1.2-million-tonne-a-year BIOX circuit in 2022 to process the large refractory-ore resource. The expansion is expected to add 194 000 oz/y of incremental production over the first five years. Production is anticipated to increase above 400 000 oz from 2025.

Potential Job Creation

The project has a workforce of 1 640 people.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return

The project has a pretax net present value, at a 5% discount rate and $1 700/oz gold price, of $1.13-million and an internal rate of return of 83%, with a payback of 1.3 years.

Capital Expenditure

The project is estimated at $290-million.

Planned Start/End Date

First gold pour from the BIOX plant was announced in May 2024.

Latest Developments

Endeavour Mining has started commercial production.

The project was completed within budget and on schedule, with a ramp-up to nameplate capacity under way.

The BIOX plant is operating at 94% plant availability at 80% of nameplate capacity, with average recoveries above 72%

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants

Lycopodium Minerals (DFS); Minescope Services (consulting on the process plant); Metso-Outotec (BIOX and milling technology); Land and Marine Geological Services (design and execution of the tailings storage facility); QGE (power station expansion engineering services and management of the delivery of the power station expansion by an original-equipment manufacturer on a lump-sum turnkey basis).

Contact Details for Project Information

Endeavour Mining, tel +44 203 011 2723 or

email info@endeavourmining.com.