Burkina Faso-focused gold producer West Africa Resources has proved its resilience to shareholders, despite challenges over the past couple of years, racking up 14 consecutive quarters of meeting or beating forecasts, according to general manager Mirey Lopez.
The company’s gold assets in Burkina Faso include the Sanbrado operation, which commenced production in 2020, and the Kiaka project that is under construction with first production due in the third quarter of 2025.
Ms Lopez said the projects were well serviced by infrastructure and logistical support, being less than 100km from the capital of Ouagadougou.
If Kiaka hits its forecast production rate as anticipated, West Africa Resources will be on track to produce 420,000 ounces per annum of gold from Burkina Faso for the next 10 years.
“Sanbrado is our flagship project, we poured gold in March of 2020, and it has a mine life of 15 years – with conventional open pit mining plus underground,” she said.
“Despite the challenges the region has seen over the last few years, the project has had uninterrupted production since it poured gold in 2020, it peaked at 300,000oz in 2021 and we also paid off the debt on that project in 2021 which was $US200 million.”
The Kiaka project is West Africa Resources’ major growth play in Burkina Faso, being about half-way through construction as of July 2024.
“Kiaka has a mine life of 20 years, with 240,000oz per annum over those 20 years using conventional open pit mining.
“Our projects allow us to have a solid investment in our social programs, in our local communities and in our environmental programs.”
During 2023, Ms Lopez said West Africa Resources produced more than 200,000oz of gold, generated annual revenue of $US600 million and the company contributed more than $US97 million to the Government of Burkina Faso in taxes and revenues.
“We are focused on building a strong workforce and we are fortunate to be able to attract qualified and excellent candidates from around the world, but more importantly our workforce consists of more than 90 percent of Burkina Faso nationals.”
West Africa Resources General Manager Mirey Lopez.
