Toro Gold’s new Mako gold mine in eastern Senegal has made an excellent start to 2019 with 47 519 oz of gold being sold in Q1 versus forecast sales of 40 245 oz. During the period 528 000 tonnes of ore were processed at 2,91 g/t Au, exceeding forecast processing of 450 000 tonnes at 2,66 g/t Au. Metallurgical recoveries were in line with expectations at 94 %. The cash cost was US$611/oz over forecast costs of US$659/oz.
The processing plant of the Mako gold mine. Metallurgical recoveries in Q1 were in line with expectations at 94 % (photo: Toro Gold).
Construction of Mako, which is 90 % owned by Toro, a Guernsey-registered private gold exploration and development company, started in August 2016 and the first gold pour took place on 26 January last year. The mine, which was built within its budgeted capex of US$158 million, is an open-pit operation – with a moderate strip ratio of 5 to 1 – served by a 1,8 Mt/a processing facility built by Lycopodium. It has a 90 % Senegalese workforce, with 60 % coming from the local Kedougou region.
Mining operations have been on-going since mid-2017 during the construction phase and have progressed well with good performance from the mining contractor African Mining Services Senegal SARL (AMSS). The mining schedule utilises stockpiling resulting in a ROM head grade in excess of 2,5 g/t over the first six years of production.
The processing facility is an industry-standard CIL plant comprising a crushing circuit, an 8,5 MW SAG mill and a gold extraction circuit prior to discharge to a lined tailings facility via a cyanide destruct circuit. The processing facility was designed to achieve average life of mine gold recoveries of approximately 89,6 per cent from a target grind of P(80) 125 µm. Electricity is provided by a diesel-fuelled 14 MW power station.
“I am delighted to report another period of excellent results for Toro Gold. Operational performance at Mako was superb over the first quarter of 2019, continuing the excellent start to operations since the first gold pour in January 2018. The Mako gold mine continues to outperform production and cost forecasts, whilst maintaining a strong safety record, and we remain on track to meet production guidance for 2019 of 157 koz,” comments Martin Horgan, Toro’s Chief Executive Officer.
“The team has not rested on its laurels and over the past six months, has completed the Optimisation Study for the mine. This has led to an updated Life of Mine (LoM) plan that has not only increased the reserve base at Mako, but also allows us to run the mine at an increased capacity to further improve its already robust economics. Importantly, this increased throughput does not shorten the mine life and can be achieved without the need for additional capital expenditure.”
The Optimisation Study, which was finalised in April this year, utilised a combination of drilling and operational data gathered over 2018 to assess the possibility of increasing both the total reserves for Mako, whilst simultaneously increasing the throughput rate of the process plant to utilise additional milling capacity.
In the event, these objectives have been achieved. The study has added 105 Koz to the reserve for a total of 893 koz over the life of mine. At the same time, mill throughput has been increased to 2,3 Mt/a which maintains a 6,5-year mine life. The LoM plan can be achieved using the existing mining fleet and mine infrastructure (tailings, waste rock and water storage facilities) without the need for any significant capex.
Starting from 1 January 2019, the new LoM plan envisages total ore mined of 14,7 Mt at 2,01 g/t Au with a strip ratio of 5,4 tonnes (waste) to 1,0 tonnes (ore). The stockpiling cut-off strategy successfully employed in 2018 is utilised and results in an annual mill feed of 2,3 Mt/a with metallurgical recoveries of 93,8 % leading to an average annual production of 144 koz Au over the first six years. This leads to an average cash cost forecast of US$754/oz over the remaining mine life using current consumable and fuel pricing – some US$90/oz lower than the previous LoM plan.
Further exploration has been undertaken since November 2018 at Mako and the surrounding area, with the aim of adding further mill feed to the reserve base.
