Endeavour Mining has extended the life of mine and increased the production outlook at its flagship assets Houndé mine in Burkina Faso and the Ity mine in Côte d’Ivoire, following recent near-mine exploration success.
The Ity mine in Côte d’Ivoire. Image credit: Endeavour
The mine plans have been developed with a focus on sustaining a 250koz per year production profile to provide long-term cash flow visibility ahead of implementing a dividend policy.
The combined annual production of both mines is expected to average about 500koz over the next five years (2021-2025) and 465koz over the next 10 years (2021-2030).
The company expects that near-mine exploration will continue to add further ounces and generate the flexibility to bring forward higher grade production while maintaining long mine life visibility. In addition, Endeavour will continue to monitor its impact on the environment and seek to improve its environmental impact metrics to continue to be better than industry average.
Sebastien de Montessus, president and CEO of Endeavour Mining, the company is delighted to be able to present updated mine plans which confirm the value unlocked through exploration and which demonstrate the high quality of these assets. “Moreover, we have continued to refine the individual mine plans with a focus on providing long-term cash flow visibility ahead of implementing a dividend policy.
“We believe that exploration potential exists at both mines to sustain production at 250kozpa beyond the current life of mine plans. We expect further reserves additions in the coming months with maiden reserves expected at the Kari Centre and Kari Gap discoveries. In addition, given the strong value creation potential, we will continue to have a strong focus on exploration at both operations given the numerous identified near-mill targets,” says de Montessus.
Compared to the outlook provided in the optimisation studies published ahead of commencing construction (Houndé in 2016 and Ity in 2017), Houndé and Ity are expected to produce an incremental 106koz per year on aggregate over the next 5 years (2021-2025) and 170koz per year over next 10 years (2021-2030), up 27% and 58%, respectively.