Endeavour starts production at Sabodala-Massawa Biox Expansion
London – The BIOX Expansion achieved its first gold pour from the gravity circuit on 18 April 2024 and its first gold pour from the BIOX circuit on 28 April 2024. Commercial production was achieved on 1 August 2024, less than four months after the first gold pour.
All circuits are operating in-line with expectations and during July and August combined, 160kt of ore was processed at a grade of 2.8g/t gold. Processing rates exceeded 2,580 tonnes per day, equivalent to 80% of nameplate capacity, and plant availability was above 94%. Average metallurgical recoveries were above 72% as we processed lower grade transitional ore during the ramp up, while mining activities have now advanced into fresh ore in the Massawa Central Zone, supporting higher grades and higher recovery rates for the remainder of the year.
During July and August, throughput rates, plant availability and recovery rates consistently exceeded our commercial production criteria for a period of at least 30 days and all major capital expenditure has been completed with the project’s construction team having now largely demobilised, completing the successful handover to the operation’s team.
The Sabodala-Massawa mine was acquired by Endeavour in February 2021, as part of its acquisition of Teranga. Endeavour owns a 90% stake in the Sabodala-Massawa mine, with the remaining 10% owned by the Government of Senegal.
Located approximately 630km east-southeast of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, the Sabodala-Massawa mine consists of several open pit operations on the highly prospective Birimian Greenstone Belt. Non-refractory ore is treated at a 4.0Mtpa CIL plant that achieved commercial production in November 2009. In 2021, Endeavour expedited the completion of the initial upgrades at the existing CIL plant and simultaneously advanced 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.
In April 2022, Endeavour launched the construction of the 1.2Mtpa BIOX circuit to process the large refractory ore resource with first gold achieved on 18 April 2024 and commercial production achieved on 1 August 2024. As at 31 December 2023, Proven and Probable reserves totalled 53.1Mt at 2.05 g/t containing 3.5Moz of gold and Measured and Indicated resources (inclusive of reserves) totalled 88.2Mt at 1.92 g/t containing 5.4Moz of gold. For the full year ended 31 December 2023, Sabodala-Massawa produced 294koz at an AISC of $767/oz. As previously guided, following the mining and processing of lower-than-expected grades with lower associated recoveries through the CIL plant in H1-2024, Sabodala-Massawa production is expected to be below the bottom end of its production guidance of 360koz – 400koz at an all-in sustaining cost (“AISC”) above the top end of its $750 – $850/oz guidance range. Production is expected to be strongly H2-2024 weighted due to the ramp-up of the BIOX expansion project.
Sabodala-Massawa is Endeavour’s largest exploration focus in 2024 with a guided spend of $25 million. The exploration programme is focussed on converting existing resources to reserves and expanding non-refractory and refractory resources for the existing CIL processing plant and the new BIOX® Expansion respectively. The exploration programme remains on track to achieve its 5-year target of discovering an additional 2.3 – 2.7Moz of Indicated resources by the end of 2025.
