AIM-listed Hummingbird Resources has awarded the Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management (EPCM) contract for its Yanfolila project in Mali to SENET, a leading South African project management and engineering company. SENET will carry out detailed engineering and manage the mine construction at the 1,24 Mt/a open-pit gold project, for which Hummingbird recently closed a US$71 million fundraise, ahead of anticipated production by the end of 2017.
SENET worked on both the Loulo (Mali) and Tongon (Côte d'lvoire) mines for Randgold Resources and has more recently been involved in the execution of True Gold's Karma project in Burkina Faso.
The Yanfolila site where early earthworks have already been completed (photo: Hummingbird).
Procurement has commenced on long lead items such as the ball mill, tower crane and CIL tanks.
Hummingbird has also announced that Wayne Galea has been appointed as Yanfolila Project Manager to work with Shaun Bunn, Technical Director. He is a mining professional with 31 years' experience in the mining industry specialising in gold. A process engineer by background, he has worked for a number of the world's leading engineering companies including AMEC, Bateman and Signet, where he gained extensive experience of managing EPCM contracts. He has also worked directly for gold mining companies such KBK Gold where he was instrumental in project execution.
Yanfolila will produce 132 000 oz of gold in its first full year of production with LoM average production of 107 000 oz/a. The project has an IRR of 60 % and an NPV of US$162 million at a US$1 250 gold price and is expected to generate over US$70 million of free cash flow in first year full production. It will have an AISC of US$695/oz – which is expected to be in the lowest quartile of African producers.
According to Hummingbird, the project has significant upside from over 1 Moz of gold inventory outside of the current mine plan within the mining permit.
Comments Dan Betts, MD of Hummingbird Resources: “With SENET contracted for Yanfolila's mine construction, detailed engineering has now commenced. We have been working with SENET for two years through the optimisation of the project and delivery of the DFS and we look forward to building a mine with them. SENET were previously involved with Yanfolila when it was owned by Gold Fields so their knowledge of the project is second to none. Coupled with their long and impressive history of delivering quality projects in Africa, this gives us all great confidence.
“I am also extremely pleased to welcome Wayne Galea to the Hummingbird team as Project Manager. He is a key hire for project delivery and brings a wealth of experience to the role that we are already benefiting from.”
