KOUROUSSA GOLD PROJECT
The Kouroussa Gold Project (the ‘Project’) is a high grade, open pit development asset with underground potential in Eastern Guinea, West Africa. It will become Hummingbird’s next operating gold mine producing circa 100,000 oz per annum once operational. This will move the Company’s production profile to +200,000 oz, with material exploration upside potential.
The Republic of Guinea (‘Guinea’) is a West African coastal country, its capital city Conakry has a population of approximately 13 million people and covers an area of 245,857 sq kms. The economy is largely dependent on agriculture and mineral production. It is the world’s second largest producer of bauxite and one of the top African gold exporters with gold mines owned and operated by major international companies.
The Project is a near term development asset in the prolific Siguiri Basin, Guinea, which currently has a high-grade indicated and inferred mineral resource of 1.18 million ounces (‘Moz’) of gold at >3 grammes per tonne (‘g/t’) coupled with material exploration upside potential.
Significant exploration potential is known to exist at depth beneath the Project’s two key deposits, Koekoe (‘KK’) and Kinkine (‘KnK’), with several other high priority targets identified for further exploration and resource growth potential.
The Company completed the acquisition of the Project from Cassidy Gold Corp in September 2020 (see 1 September 2020 release for more details). Further the Company was granted the mining licences by the government of Guinea in May 2020 (see 20 May 2020 release for more details).
Kouroussa Gold Project, Guinea mining licences map
West African miner Hummingbird Resources said today it acquired the Kouroussa Gold project located in Guinea from Cassidy Gold.
First gold production is targeted within two years with production at 100,000 oz per annum at an all-in-sustaining cost of around $800 over an initial five-year life of mine.
Dan Betts, CEO of Hummingbird, said the acquisition is transformational.
"The intended acquisition of Cassidy Guinea and the Kouroussa Gold project marks a transformational step in the development of Hummingbird and the execution of our strategy to become a multi asset gold producer in the near term," said Betts in a news release.
"Kouroussa is a high grade, high margin project with a number of similarities and synergies with Yanfolila which we are confident we can harness to our advantage. Over the last few years we have looked at a vast number of projects and Kouroussa ticks every box in terms of a next mine for Hummingbird. It is of the scale, geology, process circuit design and grade that are all perfect for our team's experience to be put to immediate use, and it is in line with our strategy to focus on high margin projects.
"Our plan is to spend the next 6 months refining the detailed engineering and design of the project whilst initiating construction and ordering long lead items, with an aggressive timetable to try to accelerate the build and pour gold within two years of the acquisition."
Hummingbird plans to produce 110-125koz in 2020. It estimates gold inventory at 6.4Moz