Hounde Gold Mine

 gold mine, gold deposit/field

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he Hounde Gold Mine is part of the greater Hounde Gold Project which covers six exploration licenses, and it is located in the Kari North Licence. The exploration licenses and mine are held by Avion Gold (Burkina Faso) SARL, a company incorporated in Burkina Faso on January 29, 2010 and 100% owned by Endeavour Mining Corporation. The actual ownership once production was achieved is Endeavour with 90% and the government of Burkina Faso with 10%. Processing of ore began September 25, 2017 and the first gold pour occurred on October 18, 2017.

Construction began in April 2016 and Lycopodium Minerals was appointed the EPCM contractor. The mine is comprised of 5 deposits that include the Vindaloo and Madras NW zones, all of which will be mined using conventional open pit methods. The process plant will have a capacity of 3 Mtpa and will use Gravity/CIL technology to obtain a recovery of 93% over a 10 year life of mine. The pits will have a stripping ratio of 8:4 waste to ore.

As of March 2018 proven reserves were 3.7 Mt grading 2.48% for a resource of 296,000 oz, and Prbably reserves were 26.9 Mt grading 2.06% for a resource off 1,779,000 ounces. That combined puts that total gold resource at the Hounde pits at 2,075,000 oz.

The Vindaloo zones are hosted by Proterozoic-age, Birimian Group, intensely sericite- and silicaaltered mafic intrusions and similarly-altered, strongly foliated and altered intermediate to mafic volcaniclastics and occasionally sediments. The mineralization is often quartz stockwork-style and is weakly to moderately pyritic.

The Madras zone and represents a northern continuation of the Vindaloo trend of mineralization. Madras zone is comprised of two en-echelon, northerly trending zones that have been traced for approximately 100 and 70 metres.