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Raw water pond excavation. (Image courtesy of True Gold Mining)
West Africa-focused True Gold Mining (CVE:TGM), which is building the $131.5 million Karma gold project in Burkina Faso, has drawn down an additional $14 million of the $100 million stream financing announced last year.
This means that to date, the ground-breaking Franco-Nevada/Sandstorm Gold funding partnership has advanced $71.6 million of the total secured by True Gold in August 2014.
According to the Canadian company’s President and CEO, Christian Milau, there is an “atmosphere of excitement” on site, as the workforce of over 500 focus on earthworks and the processing plant final assembly.
“We have progressed rapidly with site development and construction, highlighted by commissioning of the mine fleet, completion of the raw water pond excavation and initial construction of the raw water pipeline,” Milau said in the statement.
The Karma gold mine, expected to produce 97,000 ounces annually and become one of the lowest-cost gold mines in West Africa, was initially slated for completion by the end of this year. But the company had to temporarily suspend construction work at Karma in January, after several hundred members from two surrounding communities marched on the mine, threatened employees and damaged equipment.
The Vancouver-based project developer restarted construction in May and it now expects to pour its first gold at the mine in the first quarter of 2016.
Burkina Faso, with a population of 18 million, is one of the poorest in the world. It is the continent’s fourth largest gold producer after Mali and has commissioned eight new mines over the past six years.]
The Karma feasibility study estimated that Karma would over its lifetime deliver about $160 million in revenue to the African country’s coffers through a net smelter royalty, corporate taxes and a 10% carried interest.
