Hummingbird Resources has confirmed its Kouroussa gold mine in Guinea has reached the practical completion stage, entering the commissioning phase as it eyes a first gold pour date this quarter.
The company said in an operational update with key highlights that it has reached practical completion on priority systems at the mine’s processing plant, and pre-operational and cold commissioning at the open-pit site is now being performed. Hot commissioning will immediately follow.
Soutex, the engineering contractor for the Kouroussa asset, is currently working alongside Hummingbird to coordinate commissioning; in the meantime, sufficient ore feed tonnes are on the ROM pad for commissioning and mining activities are accelerating to provide increased ore feed tonnes on the ROM pad for the first pour, followed by nameplate production.
The producer also noted that hydrotesting has been completed on the pre-leach, CIL, raw water and reagent tanks, with mechanical equipment pre-operational testing also in progress, and its OEM vendors are on-site for dry and wet equipment commissioning.
“As we begin the commissioning phase to bring Kouroussa online, we remain heavily focused on safety at this busy time. Additionally, operational readiness and the transition to daily operations is a key part of this phase as we look not just to first gold, but to ramping up production to nameplate capacity, moving the company to being a +200,000-ounce, multi-asset, multi-jurisdiction gold producer,” said CEO Dan Betts.
Kouroussa is Hummingbird’s second operating gold asset in West Africa.
Source: Hummingbird Resources