Endeavour announces wet commissioning at Lafigué Project
Abidjan – Endeavour Mining plc has announced that wet commissioning activities are now underway at the Lafigué project in Côte d’Ivoire. The project is on budget, with construction now 94% complete, and the first gold pour is expected to take place in late-June, a quarter ahead of schedule.
Ian Cockerill, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are pleased with our progress at the Lafigué project, as we begin wet commissioning, with construction on budget and a quarter ahead of schedule. Lafigué is set to become another cornerstone asset in Endeavour’s portfolio; with over 200koz of annual production at an all-in sustaining cost below $900/oz over its initial 13 year mine life.
Lafigué is a great example of our strong track record of organic value creation. The project was discovered through our own ambitious exploration programme for a cost of $31 million, equivalent to an industry low discovery cost of just $12 per Indicated resource ounce. Given its potential, we expedited the necessary technical studies before launching construction in Q4-2022 and we have now started wet commissioning at the project in only 21 months from construction launch, and we continue to track ahead of schedule for first gold in late-June. This is a tremendous achievement, and it reiterates the strength of our exploration and projects teams, which are underpinned by the high geological prospectivity and the favourable operating environment in West Africa.
With the commissioning of the Lafigué project now underway and first gold production at the Sabodala-Massawa BIOX® expansion achieved in early Q2 this year, Endeavour is well positioned to successfully execute its growth strategy, completing the current phase of investment, and transitioning to a more cash flow generative phase. We will continue to support our operations, optimisation initiatives and exploration, while we re-focus our capital allocation priorities on de-levering our balance sheet and increasing our commitment to shareholder returns.”
Wet commissioning of the crushing, milling and CIL circuits at the Lafigué processing plant are underway, with first ore delivered to the crushing and milling circuits on 24 May. Mining equipment mobilisation has fully advanced and mining activities continue to accelerate according to schedule with 14.4Mt of material moved since mining activities commenced in Q4-2023. Ore stockpiles currently stand at 1.6Mt of ore grading 1.30 g/t gold containing 65koz.
Initial growth capital expenditure for the project is $448.0 million, of which approximately $434.9 million or 97% has been committed to date, with pricing in line with expectations. $369.9 million, or 83% of the growth capital has been incurred to date, with approximately $78.1 million expected to be incurred in the remainder of Q2 and early Q3.
The addition of the Lafigué mine to Endeavour’s portfolio, is expected to add average annual production of 203koz at an AISC of $871/oz over its initial 13 year mine life, with expected production of 90-110koz at an AISC of between $900-975/oz in FY-2024. Endeavour remains focussed on building local talent, and during the project construction, up to 3,000 employees and contractors were on site, 92% of whom were Ivorian nationals, with over 10% from the local community. Endeavour launched a partnership with the Ivorian Ministry of Technical Education, Vocational Training and Apprenticeships to offer technical skills training to young adults from the communities local to Lafigué, to help combat youth unemployment. To date, 65 students in the programme have been successfully employed at Lafigué in long-term technical roles.
