Sierra Leone woos miners to clean energy with $11 billion plan
Most mining firms rely on their own diesel supplies to extract iron ore, diamonds, rutile and bauxite in the resource-rich country.
Thor Explorations (TSXV: THX) is making progress in bringing its wholly owned Segilola gold project in Nigeria towards production, and the company is now expecting its first gold pour by the end of this month.
On Monday, Thor announced the start of commissioning of its gold processing plant at Segilola following the successful turning of the mills.
Remaining work on the project is focused primarily on the gold room, elution and electrowinning circuit, power connection, instrumentation and control installations, the company added.
The process plant is being commissioned in phases, with commissioning having already started at the power plant. Commissioning of the SAG & ball mills and the crushing section will follow.
Mining is currently underway, with 700,000 tonnes of waste mined and 30,000 tonnes of ore stockpiled in preparation for process plant commissioning. The pit is fully prepared for mining operations, with pre-strip nearing completion.
The mining fleet is now fully commissioned, and production is expected to quickly ramp up to its design capacity, Thor stated in Monday’s news release.
All the necessary permits are in place and blasting operations have started as the company moves into the harder transitional and fresh ore zones.
Shares of Thor Explorations were down 9% by 11:30 a.m. in Toronto. The Africa-focused gold miner has a market capitalization of C$186.9 million.
