Endeavour announces the sale of its non-core Karma mine
Endeavour Mining has announced that it has closed the sale of its 90% interest in its non-core Karma mine in Burkina Faso to Néré Mining for a total consideration of up to $25 million plus a 2.5% Net Smelter Return (NSR) royalty.
Sébastien de Montessus, President and CEO of Endeavour, commented: “The sale of our non-core Karma mine to Néré Mining is in line with our strategy of actively managing our portfolio to focus management efforts on high margin, long-life and low all-in sustaining cost, core assets.
A key consideration in the sale process, was the selection of a party that will maintain our trusted partnerships in Burkina Faso, by committing to operate the mine in the best interest’s of our employees and local stakeholders. We are very pleased to sell Karma to Néré Mining as we have confidence that they can leverage their experience and knowledge gained from their local investments to maximise Karma’s future prospects.
We are very proud of what we have accomplished at Karma, in particular the growth and development of our local employees, who we wish to thank for their commitment, professionalism and contribution to Endeavour’s success over the past several years.”
The transaction has been closed, with an effective date of 10 March 2022.
UPDATED GROUP GUIDANCE
Following the sale of the Karma mine, Endeavour has updated its production and all-in sustaining cost (“AISC”) guidance for continuing operations to account for the removal of Karma’s guided production of 85 – 100koz at a AISC of $1,200 – 1,250/oz for 2022, with guidance for the other operations remaining unchanged. As shown in Table 1, 2022 production guidance for continuing operations has decreased from 1,400 – 1,500koz to 1,315 – 1,400koz, while AISC guidance from continuing operations has decreased by $10/oz to $880 – 930/oz.
ABOUT NERE MINING
Néré Mining is a Burkina Faso based consortium led by Elie Ouedraogo (a board member of both Karma & Mana and a prominent Burkinabé business figure). Mr. Ouedraogo owns 29% of the share capital of Néré Mining, is the chairman of Riverstone Karma (the company that has the mining license for the Karma mine) and is a director of Semafo Burkina Faso (a subsidiary of Endeavour Mining plc and the company that has the mining license for the Endeavour Group’s Mana mine).
ABOUT KARMA
Located approximately 185 km northwest of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, the Karma mine is a low-grade heap leach operation consisting of several shallow, low strip ratio, free-dig open pit gold deposits. In 2017, an optimization project was completed to lift the stacking capacity. Ore is treated at a 5Mtpa heap leach facility. The first gold pour took place in April 2016 and commercial production was achieved in October 2016. Karma produced approximately 88,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $1,195/oz in 2021. Endeavour owned a 90% stake in the Karma mine, with the remaining 10% owned by the State of Burkina Faso.
