Service: Drill and blast

In 2021 Ausdrill assisted to move the mine’s ore crusher to the Larego site. This includes works for a new crusher, feed line, and refinery (haul road construction, crusher circle, and facilities), as well as sensitive blasting around major power lines present on site that feed the largest towns throughout the SouthWest region. Ausdrill is providing a number of resourcing efficiencies at Larego by pooling resources and sharing its personnel across nearby mine sites. Our trusted team of locals, many of whom have worked in the area for almost 10 years, brings a proven and loyal foundation to our service provision.

The Sanbrado Gold Project is a low-cost, high-grade operation – one of the highest margin gold projects in West Africa. Sanbrado is located 90 km east-southeast of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso and covers an aggregate area of 116 km².

AMS was awarded this contract late 2019 and went on to construct and fit out of the mine infrastructure, including wash bay facility and workshop fit outs. AMS commenced the open-cut mining operations, on time and on schedule. The project scope is full service open pit mining, including: establishment, site preparation, short & medium term mine planning, drill & blast, load & haul, grade control, dewatering, and mobile maintenance works.

The project currently runs with 5 main production excavators, 11 trucks, 2 graders, 2 water trucks and 4 dozers.

In its first year of production, Sanbrado is expected to produce more than 300 000 oz of gold and an average of 217 000 ozpa in its first five years and 153 000 ozpa over the current 10-year life of mine.

Iduapriem mine comprises the Iduapriem and Teberebie properties in a 110km2 concession and it’s located in the Western Region of Ghana, some 70km north of the coastal city of Takoradi and about 10km south-west of the Goldfields Tarkwa mine. Iduapriem mine is an open-pit mine and its processing facilities include a carbon in-pulp (CIP) plant with a gravity circuit.

In 2018, Iduapriem mine increased production 11% year on year to 254K oz and again to 275K oz in 2019 (the mine highest production since 2004). The production increase was driven by key factor of mining deeper and higher-grade areas in the Teberebie pit, where AMS was contracted to mine. AMS was awarded the mining services contract in February 2014 worth about 15 million US Dollars per year which is reviewed annually. Under the mining services contract, AMS is responsible for supplying all incidental goods, mining fleet and skilled labour necessary for the proper completion of the works and the performance of the contract. AMS employs 357 people at the Iduapriem project with 38% of the workforce coming from the catchment areas and the host region, and the remaining 62% being employees from the other regions of Ghana.

AMS has worked with respect to the environment and safety for its employees without affecting our ability to deliver AAIL required mining target KPIs. In December 2019 AMS was awarded a 1-year contract extension generating revenue of $45m for open pit mining services, equipment supply and maintenance. Following our revised production schedule issued by AGA, AMS labour numbers effective 16th April 2020 reduced to 267 people with 39% of the workforce coming from the catchment areas and the host region, and the remaining 61% from the other regions.

In the present day is AMS’s Senegalese journey; a journey which began almost exactly three years ago in 2016 as part of the business’s ongoing footprint expansion strategy. AMS’s venture into the country has kicked-off with the Mako project in the southeast, and the (at least) six-and-a-half year gold project will lay the foundations for AMS to replicate the same model already successfully implemented across much of the rest of West Africa. The project currently runs with 3 main production excavators, 14 CAT 777F trucks, 7 DPI Panteras rigs.