I Am Gold

IAMGOLD

Mining Feature

ESSAKANE SA 42

Issue 103 ·Business Enquirer Magazine

Issue 103 · Business Enquirer Magazine

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PROJECT DIRECTED BY

WRITTEN BY

Malvern Kandemwa

Jay Benmehidi

IAMGOLD

A

With the precious metal present in all but every region of the country, international heavyweights, mid-tier producers and juniors, and small-scale artisanal miners alike have flocked in number to find their fortune, and in many instances find it they have.

Situated approximately 330 km from the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, in the country’s north-east Sahel region, Essakane is both the flagship project in IAMGOLD’s mining portfolio and the crown jewel of Burkina Faso’s booming gold mining sector. Its credentials are impressive: boasting indicated resources amounting to 4.7Moz of gold contained in 110Mt at an average grade of 1.3g/t, and 2.0Moz of inferred resources at a 0.5g/t cut-off and 1.5g/t grade, the Essakane Main Zone (EMZ) is the largest known gold deposit in Burkina Faso.

As one of the most active miners in West Africa, it is perhaps to be expected that the well-regarded Canadian mid-tier operator, IAMGOLD Corp. is leading from the front in Burkina Faso through its subsidiary, IAMGOLD Essakane SA, which has cultivated a reputation for ethical mining excellence since it acquired the Essakane open pit project in 2009.

Since construction of the mine site was completed in 2010, the same year it entered commercial production, gold output has increased steadily over the past decade to the extent that, today, the project produces in excess of 400,000oz per annum – for context, this accounts for roughly two-thirds of IAMGOLD’s total anticipated output for 2021.

latter-day gold rush is underway in the landlocked West African nation of Burkina Faso – a rising star in the global gold mining space that has emerged to become the continent’s fourth largest gold producer.

Mohamed Ourriban, Managing Director of Iamgold Essakane SA

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IAMGOLD

Mining Feature As a contributor to the tune of three-quarters of a billion dollars to the Burkinabe economy over the past decade and a direct employer of more than 2,500 staff, the vast majority of whom are Burkinabe nationals, Essakane is a thriving engine of wealth creation and opportunity for Burkina Faso and its people. Not that maximising Essakane’s considerable potential has been easy, however – far from it.

Technologies had to be implemented to maximise gold recovery... Each percentage of gram that we recover, it costs 5 million dollars as profit.

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Mohamed Ourriban, the Managing Director of IAMGOLD Essakane SA, explained how the low grade of ore at the site has necessitated the use of creative methods to optimise gold recovery: “To make this project economical and profitable, we had to innovate. Technologies had to be implemented to maximise gold recovery. Each 100 grams that enter the factory, we recover about 92g. 8g are lost. Each percentage of gram more that we recover, it costs 5 million dollars as profit.

So, it is very important to invest in technologies that will minimize the losses of gold”.

In addition to conventional gold recovery processes, the use of activated carbon, made from coconut carcasses, to capture fine gold particles is one such example of the measures that are being taken to move the needle re maximising output, however the true extent of IAMGOLD’s integration of new, innovative methods and technologies into Essakane’s day-to-day operations go much further this.

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IAMGOLD’s mine at Essakane

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Lift your competitive advantage with our drive to make good things better.

Performance to succeed today.

Technology to lead tomorrow.

epiroc.com

From high-performance equipment and service excellence to build the mine of the future we never stop innovating.

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Interview with Anders Berglund Regional General Manager West Africa, Epiroc

Could you introduce Epiroc’s presence in West Africa?

Epiroc West Africa consists of three entities: Epiroc Mali, covering Mali, Mauritania, Guinea, Senegal, and Ivory Coast; Epiroc Burkina Faso, representing Niger, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, and Gabon; and Epiroc Ghana, looking after Anglophone countries like Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Across West Africa, we are a team of 140 people and growing rapidly: By the end of this year, our workforce will grow by 20%. At this moment, we are actively recruiting service technicians and application specialists to help us in the transition to automation and digitalization.

What is underpinning Epiroc’s growth in the region?

One of the driving industry trends is the preference for contract mining as a means to control costs. Meanwhile, digitalization and automation

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Mining Feature are irreversibly shaping the industry. At Epiroc, the majority of our equipment is ready for automation and digitalization, however there are challenges when it comes to widespread adoption and implementation: One of the main challenges is the lack of digital infrastructure, including poor internet connection, at our customers’ sites. Furthermore, is the need for knowledge sharing and a greater awareness or understanding for the use of these technologies. Finally, Epiroc is leading the change towards sustainability in mining through zero-emission, battery-electric equipment. We have seen a growing interest within our market, especially for underground applications.

forefront of innovation and follow closely the trends. Electrification is already a game-changer in the industry.

How is Epiroc preparing for Mining 4.0?

What do you think about West Africa’s underground potential?

Remote-operated machinery (controlled from an office) are already present in the region. This type of equipment is particularly needed in remote sites. People are key to preparing for the shift to automation, in particular technicians who understand and can troubleshoot effectively. The industry requires a new skill set of mining engineers, in order to operate digital/ autonomous machines. On the other hand, the market needs to understand their network capabilities requirements– in some remote areas with high-security risks, the infrastructure is not ready for a digital/autonomous future.

Epiroc set a goal to have all of its equipment battery-powered by 2025 for underground mining and by 2030 for surface operations.

Can you comment on this initiative?

As part of our global sustainability targets, Epiroc aims to complete the electrification of our machines so that our entire portfolio is emission-free by 2030. However, we cannot predict the rate of change for the mining industry itself, and diesel-fueled machines will surely coexist with electric ones. We want to align our operational culture with that of our clients, and to drive change from where we sit. To remain a leader within this industry, we need to stay at the

What is “Water for All”?

Within our ESG agenda, Epiroc has been running “Water for All,” an employee-driven initiative that has been ongoing for the past 30 years. It all started when one of our service technicians visited an African village without access to clean water; he returned to Sweden and kick-started this program. Since then, our employees have been supporting different water-scarce areas in the world.

There is tremendous potential for underground projects in the region, especially for gold and diamonds, but also for bauxite and iron ore mines.

Some of these projects might have already been in operation had it been for a more sustainable costs and safety environment. The rise in commodity prices has made many of these products more commercially feasible, but the volatile funding and political climate will prevent some of these from coming to life. There are many underground projects at feasibility or pre-feasibility development stage, and the dry-out of ore in surface operations will push more transformations of open-pit projects into underground projects. In particular, the West African coastline countries – could hold rich underground deposits.

Can you outline Epiroc’s medium-term objectives?

Epiroc is focused on growth and expanding our footprint in the region. We have already started the process of opening new entities in Liberia, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, and Senegal, as part of our strategy to position ourselves closer to our customers. It’s also important to establish more robust local organizations with permanent

staff. Security challenges and tightening border regulations (be they related to security or Covid) have made it harder for our staff to travel across the border.

In terms of investments, Epiroc is building a new training center that will most likely be located in Ghana, but it will serve the entire region. Other planned investments include a new control tower that will enable us to remotely monitor moving equipment around the region. We have also allocated funds for a new regional distribution center which has become essential given the transportation disruptions caused by the pandemic.

Finally, we have made it our priority to work towards gender diversity. Even though women represent 50% of the talent pool, this figure is not reflected in the industry, nor within our organization. We want to change this paradigm and encourage more women to enter the mining industry.

Do you have a final message for our audience?

Mining is and has been a very conservative industry. To change a conservative industry, we operate based on our new vision: “Dare to Think New.” To grow, we must do things differently, think differently, and innovate constantly while improving the operational costs of our customers.

Epiroc West Africa contact.westafrica@epiroc.com

Epiroc Mali: +223 44 98 06 00 Epiroc Burkina Faso: +226 25 36 47 80 Secoroc Ghana: +233 242 420 872

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Epiroc is a vital part of a sustainable society and a global productivity partner for mining and infrastructure customers. Epiroc has been created as a spin-off from Atlas Copco in 2018. The split from Atlas Copco enables a higher focus on its mining and infrastructure customers through a dedicated board and management team while keeping the good things from its past.

With ground-breaking technology, Epiroc develops and provides innovative and safe equipment, such as drill rigs, rock excavation and construction equipment and tools for surface and underground applications. The company also offers world-class service and other aftermarket support as well as solutions for automation, digitalization and electrification.

Epiroc is based in Stockholm, Sweden, had revenues of SEK 36 billion in 2020, and has 14,000 passionate employees supporting and collaborating with customers in more than 150 countries.

In West & Central Africa, Epiroc operates through three (3) customers centers located in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana under the name “Epiroc West Africa”.

Mining Feature Essakane has been something of a testbed for the integration of new technologies, in-line with IAMGOLD’s ambition of being a tech-centric pioneer in the mining space. At another of the company’s mines, the Côté gold project in Ontario, Canada, IAMGOLD – in partnership with Epiroc, a partner whom it has worked closely with for a number of years - has increasingly utilised remote and automated drill rigs following their successful integration at Essakane. It is easy to see why IAMGOLD has gone to such effort to deploy this cutting-edge new tech: autonomous drilling allows operators to be removed from the hazards caused by a working drill, and instead allows them to oversee the machine from a safe distance. Additionally, autonomous drilling also allows for increased accuracy and efficiency, leading to more productive operations.

The business case for adopting automated drilling at Essakane, which was expanded in 2013 to reach a mining capacity of 55Mt per annum, was centred around a classical capital expenditure vs. operational expenditure dynamic: should the company acquire a new rig to increase drilling performance by 15%, or instead automate its existing seven-strong fleet of Epiroc Pit Viper 235s to hit this goal? With technical assistance from Epiroc, IAMGOLD chose the latter, and launched its first automated rig at Essakane on February 8th 2020.

The results thus far have been impressive. A single driller now has the ability to safely operate multiple rigs simultaneously from a teleremote operator station in Essakane’s control hub, which has facilitated improved accuracy and consistency of drilling processes and increased cost-savings as a result of the continuous improvements made.

On this deployment, an IAMGOLD representative explained: “the implementation of this new technology represented a holistic operational and cultural change, especially when taking into account the hidden complexities that come with operating a project in West African where technical resources are scarce. Change management was a primary consideration throughout all stages of the process. The deployment was based on industrial lessons learned and has demonstrated critical change management to ensure the success of the effective technology implementation.

It was important to include key people at all stages in order to be able to work on any changes or unexpected situations, and significant technical and operational experience were instrumental in ramping up to full capacity of the system.

A review of this deployment will extract lessons learned from the integration of automation technologies into the mine site and serve as the steppingstones to IAMGOLD journey to full autonomy.”

Aerial view of Essakane mine

Epiroc West Africa in brief

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140 + employees in the region

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6+ business partners

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Bounded and normal warehouses

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Service workshops

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Regional distribution center in construction

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Mining Feature Of course whilst aspects of the drilling process at Essakane have been streamlined and improved, conversely, new key inputs have been required to ensure the success of the automation program.

Reflecting on the implementation, Zhu noted several key required inputs for a successful automation implementation program. As an example of this, it is critically important to have a reliable network connection between the onboard device and the remote operations office from which the driller operates, and, on top of this, the sensors on the machines need to be kept in perfect condition, therefore requiring maintenance teams to evaluate their condition and performance on a regular basis. And, whilst fewer people will be needed to oversee drilling in autonomous mode, the skill level of the required personnel will be that much greater.

Over the near future, steps will be taken at Essakane to improve the bandwidth and latency time for real-time control of multi-automated drills, developing a preventive maintenance system checklist, and carrying out a business case study on upgrading four PV235s to either Teleremote or AutoDrill 2 operation.

Building a mine of the future isn’t easy and there is much work yet to do, but under Mohamed Ourriban’s leadership and with an astute team of talented, capable and committed staff, it is understandable that confidence in what the coming decade holds is high at Essakane – these are exciting times indeed.

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