The underexplored gold-rich Yanfolila belt in Mali is Gold Fields’ new West African focus, says Gold Fields West Africa head Peter Turner.
He tells Mining Weekly that the Yanfolila – which is part of a greater gold area that hosts mines like Sadiola, Morila, Loulo, Syama and Siguiri – has “great prospectivity” for Gold Fields.
He adds that Gold Fields has been working intensely on the new assets acquired in the Glconcaves gyratory crusherencar transaction.
The flagship of its emerging gold camp in southern Mali is Komana, where gold with grades of up to 15,7 g/t have been discovered ciron ore crushing plant in barbillose to the surface and visible gold has been detected in Komana West.
“These deposits lend themselves to free dig, and we could expect some ciron sand mining plant supplierheap mining,” Turner says, pointing to the first 100 m at Sadiola being an area where gold is accessible very close to the surface.
Early-stage exploration is under way at Bokoro, Faliko and Badogo, which are within a 60-km radius of Komana and all close to Komana, where synergies could be levered off a central gold hub.
Drilling will continue at Komana until June and the conceptual study will be complete by December.
Gold Fields’ West African oper- ations of Tarkwa and Damang did a million tons for the first time last month.
Gold production at both operations was marginally down in the December quarter, Tarkwa producing 173 000 oz and Damang 45 000 oz.
Two new superpits are emerging at Damang, which is targeting strong growth and there is keen interest in the newly discovered Greater Amoanda, which has widths of 30 m at 8 g/t and 4 m at 11 g/t close to the surface.