By Eniola Peters
Canada-listed junior miner, Thor Explorations has concluded plans to commence construction of N31.32billion ($87million) processing plant at its Segilola gold mine in Nigeria.
The 625,000 tons per annum Segilola’s development is recoverable in 1.4 years.
The project, which is expected to become the country’s first large-scale gold mine, would produce 80,000 ounces of gold annually over its five-year mine life.
Delivering the results of an independent Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for the proposed gold operation, Thor said it planned to build an open pit mine as well as a new 625,000 tons per annum processing plant.
The plant would consist of a conventional crushing circuit, two-stage grinding, gravity, carbon-in-leach, elution, electro-winning and smelting to produce gold doré.
The study, said Thor, envisions construction beginning in the second quarter of the year, followed by an 18-month construction period.
According to the firm’s statement, “construction at Segilola, poised to become Nigeria’s first large-scale gold mine, is expected to begin in the second quarter of the year.”
The Vancouver-based company, which also completed an Independent Preliminary Economic Assessment for a proposed underground extension, said that project would be an initial three-year operation, which can be brought on during the open pit mine life to supplement production.
The underground operation at Segilola, said Thor, would require a $13 million-investment and could produce 33,000 ounces of gold annually.
Thor Explorations acquired Segilola, located about 120km from Nigeria’s capital Lagos, in August 2016 and renewed the project’s mining licence (for 25 years) three months later, in November 2016.
The company spent the majority of 2018 undertaking definitive feasibility study work and pre-development work-streams aimed de-risking and optimizing the project following the completion of the prefeasibility study (PFS) in October 2017,
Thor Explorations first captured the attention of the mining and investment community in February last year, when it won the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2018 Battlefield competition and was recognized as the most promising emerging mining company, out of 22 other juniors who participated in the contest.
