The Yanfolila mine owned by Hummingbird Resources PLC (LON:HUM) commenced gold production in December 2017, and the ramp up to full production is now well underway.
Since first gold was poured on 19 December 2017, the performance of the plant has steadily improved month by month.
READ: Hummingbird Resources says Yanfolila ramp-up on track as it kicks off exploration
In the first 14 days of March, the plant operated at an average of 95% of design throughput and has consistently achieved a gold recovery rate of approximately 96%, which is in excess of design specification.
The gold recovered to 14 March 2018 amounts to 16,804 ounces, of which 11,958 ounces has been poured and 4,846 ounces are currently within circuit inventory.
During the initial ore commissioning phase, the plant was processing ore from the lower-grade stockpiles in order to ensure plant performance and gold recovery were satisfactory before increasing the head grade.
Over the past two months, the amount of high grade ore fed into the mill blend has been steadily increased and the plant is now running close to name-plate capacity with recoveries remaining consistently above design.
Accordingly, Hummingbird continues to introduce higher-grade ore into the plant.
"We are delighted that the plant has performed so well and that the work carried out by our highly experienced team and contractors has so far been rewarded in ramp-up operations with 96% recoveries, over 3g/t head grade and a steady increase in plant throughput towards design,” said chief executive Dan Betts.