Endeavour Mining (LSE:EDV,TSX:EDV,OTCQX:EDVMF) said on Monday (July 2) that it has completed the first gold pour at its Lafigué mine in Côte d’Ivoire ahead of schedule, 21 months after construction began.
“We are proud to have achieved our first gold pour at Lafigué, which, alongside the first gold pour at the Sabodala-Massawa BIOX expansion that we achieved in April, marks the successful completion of the recent phase of investment and growth that we started in Q2-2022,” said CEO Ian Cockerill in a release shared by the company.
“We now begin a new phase of increased free cash flow generation, de-levering and enhanced shareholder returns."
Lafigué is Endeavour's fifth project built in West Africa in the last decade, and according to the company was discovered for US$31 million, a low cost compared to other discoveries in the industry.
The mine is expected to produce 90,000 to 110,000 ounces of gold during the company's 2024 fiscal year at an all-in sustaining cost of US$900 to US$975 per ounce. Output is expected to increase to around 200,000 ounces in Endeavour's 2025 fiscal year, with that level of output anticipated to continue for at least 13 years.
The first gold pour included gold from both gravity and carbon-in-leach circuits, yielding approximately 380 ounces of gold. The company expects the asset to reach commercial production during its fourth fiscal quarter this year.
Currently 1.8 million metric tons of ore grading 1.37 grams per metric ton are stockpiled at Lafigué.
From 2021 to 2025, Endeavour is aiming to discover 1.2 million to 1.8 million ounces of indicated resources at the Lafigué mining permit and the wider Fetekro exploration permit. It has achieved 50 percent of the target's lower end so far.
The company is also looking at other areas of the country in hopes of further success.
"We believe this level of value creation is repeatable in West Africa," noted Cockerill. "We have already identified the Assafou deposit on the Tanda-Iguela property in Côte d’Ivoire, where we have delineated a top tier resource and another potential cornerstone asset, which will underpin our next phase of organic growth in a few years time."