CEO of Toro Gold, Martin Horgan, commented: “We are delighted to be able to announce this significant milestone for the company both ahead of schedule and under budget. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this milestone, including our dedicated team of staff, contractors, stakeholders, our partners in the Government of Senegal, and our financiers.”
“Russell White, Project Manager, supported by his construction group has achieved a remarkable result in not only delivering the Mako project ahead of schedule and under budget, but also doing so in a safe manner with project safety statistics significantly bettering the national Australian standards over the 3.6 million man hours worked at the site.”
“We are now focussed on ramping up to steady state and commercial production over the coming months. We head into 2018 with Adrian de Freitas as General Manager of the Mako Mine, leading our next phase of development as an operating company.”
Initial production started on 8 February 2018 with a total capital construction budget of US$158 million, including contingency and working capital. According to the company, the construction team has been able to beat this construction schedule with first gold occurring some two weeks early and at this time forecast cost to complete estimates indicate that the final capital cost will be below the targeted US$158 million. A final capital construction cost reconciliation will be completed later in 1Q18.
