By: Creamer media

The expansion of mineral resources at the Sunbird and Kingfisher deposits; the conversion of inferred to indicated resources; and positive results from ongoing drilling at the Sunbird underground project are among the priorities for the company as it pursues the extended LoM.

Five drill rigs are currently active at Séguéla – an openpit operation which started gold production in 2023.

Fortuna set a $13.5-million exploration budget for the project for this year, including for 73 000 m of exploration drilling to support the resource upgrade at the Sunbird underground project and the infill and expansion of the Kingfisher deposit.

The company last week reported an 11% year-on-year increase in proven and probable mineral reserves to 13-million tonnes, containing 1.2-million ounces of gold, while measured and indicated mineral resource gold ounces, exclusive of mineral reserves, had increased by 100%.

The project, which now boasts a seven-and-a-half-year LoM, holds 794 000 oz of gold in indicated resources and 712 000 oz of gold in inferred resources.

During a media visit to the project site last week, Fortuna West Africa operations VP Neil Colbourne told Mining Weekly that the growth of the project’s reserves and resources had been underpinned by a strong exploration programme.

“We have continued to develop our openpit reserves, and we have only drilled a relatively small portion of the total land package. The area is very prospective.

“We've continued to grow our resource and convert that into reserve and that bodes well for future exploration programmes to continue success in growing the overall resource at Séguéla,” he said.

Colbourne noted that, while the Sunbird deposit was originally targeted as an openpit resource only, drilling had showed there was an extensive resource below the openpit.

Engineering work at Sunbird continues, with the objective of converting mineral resources to mineral reserves by December.

The company is working on a prefeasibility study (PFS) to assess the potential of developing Sunbird as an underground mine.

Fortuna said the Sunbird underground project had the potential to underpin strong Séguéla production for several years.

Colbourne noted that the PFS would be completed before the end of the year.

Planned upcoming activities include updating Sunbird underground project mineral resources by year-end; ordering long-lead equipment for underground mining; planning and execution of early works activities; and advancing government permitting.

Fortuna is increasingly confident in the potential to extend the Séguéla LoM through continued drilling and mining studies.

In line with that confidence, the company has also initiated engineering studies to evaluate options for further expanding the mine’s processing plant capacity.

Séguéla’s processing plant was commissioned in mid-2023 with a design throughput capacity of 156 t an hour or about 1.25-million tonnes a year.

Since commissioning, several low-capital optimisation initiatives have been implemented to enhance the efficiency of the plant, which is expected to treat 1.75-million tonnes a year from 2026 onwards.

Fortuna has noted that technical studies have been initiated to evaluate the potential to further expand capacity by about 25% to between two-million and 2.5-million tonnes a year. These studies are expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2026.

Sustainability

Meanwhile, Fortuna has developed a plan to install a 6 MW solar plant at the mine, in partnership with TotalEnergies, which will be operational by February next year.

Thereafter, Colbourne explained that the solar plant could be scaled up to 10 MW if required, which would accommodate the energy needs of the processing plant at the mine, which currently had a capacity of 6.5 MW.

Additionally, the company completed the Stage 3 expansion of its tailings storage facility (TSF) capacity from 4.3-million tonnes to 11.4-million tonnes, with production capacity at 1.75-million tonnes a year.

The company’s budget for TSF Stage 3 was $8.66-million, with expenditure to date at $7.6-million.

Colbourne explained that Fortuna had adopted the highest standard of tailings management aimed at ensuring compliance with the best possible practice, transparency and engineering discipline.

“This mine will be fully compliant to the highest international standard of tailings management that exists in the industry by the end of 2027 and that is our commitment,” he said.