Monkeydonkey wrote: ENDEAVOUR Mining, the 518,000 ounce per year West African gold mining firm, said it was seeking bolt-on mining acquisitions that would add no less than 100,000 oz/year with a minimum 10 years of operating life. "We would like to add a couple of mines in the region where we are now," said Neil Woodyer, CEO of Endeavour Mining, in an interview at the Mining Indaba conference. The company, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, has five operating mines in West Africa's Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali and Ghana.
Woodyer added that it was likely the company would give construction approval to a sixth mine, the proposed 240,000 oz/year Hound mine in Burkina Faso in the first half of this year with first production coming on line in the fourth quarter of 2017.
"It ought to be our next project although we do have to see where the politics is going and especially the cash flow generation before we pull the trigger," he said.
If the mine is built, it would take production to just below 800,000 oz/year making Endeavour Mining the fourth largest gold producer in West Africa after Randgold Resources, Newmont Mining and AngloGold Ashanti.
"We don’t have a world class asset so we have to increase the quality of the asset base the company has, including the overall all-in sustaining costs and life of mine. All we can do is move through the curve," he said.
In September, Egyptian billionaire, Naguib Sawiris bought a 30% stake in Endeavour Mining through his 55% stake in La Mancha, an investment company. In addition to adding Ivory Coast’s Ity mine to Endeavour’s portfolio, a mine that Woodyer said can also be expanded, Sawiris committed $63m to Ity, and pumped $75m into Endeavour helping it to reduce net debt to $160m. "In Sawiris, we have a cornerstone shareholder. His objective is our objective of building a long-term west African gold producer," said Woodyer.
In January, Endeavour said it would delist from the Australian Stock Exchange in an effort to reduce costs.
My opinion
They will build hounde (thats probably one of the catalysts now) they wont hedge, they might acquire here.