Endeavour pours first gold at Senegal expansion project

Endeavour Mining Corp. (EDV-TSX-LSE, EDVMF-OTCQX,) has reported the first gold pour from its Sabodala-Massawa Biox expansion project in Senegal. The event marks the successful delivery of the Biox expansion project on schedule and on budget with no lost-time injuries, the company said in a press release.

Endeavour Mining shares advanced on the news, rising 2.5% or 73 cents to $29.86. The shares trade in a 52-week range of $37.10 and $21.11.

Endeavour is one of the world’s senior gold producers and the largest in West Africa, with operating assets across Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso and a strong portfolio of advanced development projects and exploration assets in the highly prospective Birimian greenstone belt across West Africa.

Endeavour achieved that position after striking a deal three years ago to acquire another West Africa-focused company Teranga Gold Corp., in an all-share transaction worth $2.44 billion (US$1.86 billion).

The combination created a new top ten senior gold producer with average annual production of more than 1.5 million ounces from six core operating mines.

The combined company also has a development pipeline of six greenfield projects across the underexplored Birimian Greenstone Belt.

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% held by the government of Senegal.

Located approximately 630 kilometres east-southeast of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, the Sabodala-Massawa mine consists of several open pit operations in the Birimian greenstone belt. Non-refractory ore is treated at a 4.0 million tonne per annum carbon-in-leach 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 1.2 million tonne-per-year Biox circuit to process the large refractory ore resource with the first gold pour achieve on April 18, 2024. Sabodala-Massawa is expected to produce between 360,00 and 400,000 ounces of gold this year.

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