Bagoé definitive feasibility study defines a 1.16 Moz reserve and a nine-year mine

Quintel has completed the definitive feasibility study for the Bagoé gold project in northern Côte d’Ivoire. The study describes a conventional open pit mine feeding a 2.1 Mtpa carbon-in-leach plant, producing an average of 128 thousand ounces of gold a year over a nine-year mine life, and 148 thousand ounces a year over the first five years.

The ore reserve is 18.6 Mt at 1.94 g/t for 1.16 million ounces, within a measured and indicated resource of 31.2 Mt at 1.78 g/t for 1.79 million ounces. Metallurgical recovery is 94.2% at a 75-micron grind with fast leach kinetics and no refractory component.

Pre-production capital is estimated at US$412 million with an all-in sustaining cost of US$1,010 per ounce and a payback period of 2.6 years at a gold price of US$1,850 per ounce.

Commitments carried into the build

• No physical resettlement of households. Pit shells and the plant site were relocated twice during study work to avoid it.
• A downstream-raise tailings facility with an Engineer of Record appointed before construction and an independent review board seated from first design review.
• A 32 MW solar and storage installation built into the initial plant, targeting 54% renewable electricity in the first year of production.
• A minimum of 90% Ivorian nationals in operations and 60% recruited from the Savanes district, with a training centre opening 18 months before first gold.
• A funded closure provision in place at first production.

The mining permit was granted and the environmental and social impact assessment approved in 2025. A final investment decision is expected in 2026 following completion of project financing, with first gold targeted for the second half of 2028.

“There is no new technology in this flowsheet and that is the point,” said Dr Ana Fontes, Chief Technical Officer. “Every unit operation in the plant has a reference installation our team has walked through. We are not going to find out something interesting about this circuit during commissioning.”