As an international diversified gold producer, Nordgold has spent the last 17 years developing its portfolio of gold assets across the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Burkina Faso and Guinea. Nordgold’s assets aim to achieve significant growth and deliver value for the company’s various shareholders and local stakeholders. However, even as such a young company compared to many of its competitors in the global market, Nordgold knows that simply developing these assets is not enough, and instead, its operations must meet the challenges of the mining sector today, whilst delivering significant benefits for the future. For Nordgold this looks like social and economic development projects that ensure that throughout its development of assets, it is providing value in every aspect of its operations.
Established in 2007, Nordgold began under the Russian steel and mining company Severstal which acquired the Suzdal and Toborn mines in Kazakhstan and Russia respectively. Over the next few years, Nordgold began developing significantly, and after a series of successful global merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions, the company took over assets including High River Gold and Crew Gold. By 2012, Nordgold had become its own split-off company from Severstal and began operations as an independent gold producer reaching an attributable gold production of 717koz. However, the company’s expansion has only continued to grow with the launch of three mines between 2013 and 2018, including the Bissa and Bouly mines. Today, the assets under Nordgold have produced over 1 million ounces of gold a year, which includes 4 mines in the Russian Federation, 1 in Kazakhstan, 2 in Burkina Faso and 1 in Guinea.
One of the most significant mine projects under Nordgold is the Bissa-Bouly Mine complex located in Burkina Faso. The complex spans the two mine operations, with Bissa being the company’s first mine site in Africa. The Bissa mine, located 100km north of the capital Ouagadougou, is one of the largest gold mines in Burkina Faso with an estimated gold reserve of 4.9 million ounces. At the mine site, Nordgold carries out modern open pit mine operations, which span drilling and blasting followed by load and haul transportation. One of the main successes of the Bissa Mine is that the entire complex was delivered in just 15 months, fitting firmly to Nordgold’s construction timelines and budget parameters. With the complex being a big success for Nordgold, the company moved to develop its facilities further and deliver a heap leach facility at the close Bouly deposit.
The Bouly deposit would then become Nordgold’s third operating asset in Burkina Faso, and continue the company’s development with the Bissa greenfield. The mine deposit was first built by Nordgold in 2013, and now delivers 400koz of gold per year. This figure has solidified Nordgold’s position as the second-largest producer of gold in Burkina Faso. Thanks to its close proximity to the Bissa development, Nordgold began the single open-cut operation that represents a large, low-grade gold mineralisation utilising the existing heap leach treatment plant developed as part of the Bissa development.
Ore taken from both mines undergoes a similar process of being crushers before it is treated at its leaching facility to undergo desorption, electro-winning, and smelting. On average, the Bouly deposit alone has an expected 120koz annual production rate, over its 10-year life of mine (LOM) which would accumulate to almost 20,000 ounces of gold. As the two mine sites are so close in proximity, the Bissa-Bouly mine complex continues to work hand-in-hand to deliver cutting-edge mine operations, that deliver significant economic benefits for the company and the local region.
Nordgold is committed to giving back to the local community and the economy of Burkina Faso throughout the Bissa-Bouly mine complex, as it believes that its operations can provide significant economic and social development to the country. So far, Nordgold has delivered $1.3 billion in social and economic investment, which included $5,000 million to the government in the form of royalties and taxes. Also, $22 million was given to social development projects that have focused on delivering clean water and sanitation as well as the country’s sustainable development.
However, Nordgold is passionate about ensuring its operations benefit local communities, and so has invested in the infrastructural development at a community level to build houses, schools, roads, and health centres, whilst also working to support farmers and small businesses to thrive. This focused role in helping the community returns to Nordgold’s central strategy to find, develop and streamline its assets while creating value for the local stakeholders and communities in which the mine operations intersect.
As Nordgold moves towards the future it has begun focusing on ensuring the environmental impact of its operations is meeting its ongoing sustainability goals. In 2019, Nordgold implemented a solar power plant in partnership with Total Eren and the Africa Energy Management Platform (AEMP). Total Eren is an independent power producer specialising in the development of renewable energies across Africa. Together the partnership began plans to build a 12MV solar photovoltaic power plant that would supply energy to the Bissa and Bouly mines. In addition to the development of the solar field, the partnership also would build a battery energy storage system, aiming to store and conserve energy to reduce the mine’s ongoing fuel consumption by 6.4 million litres, and in turn, reduce the overall carbon emissions of the Bissa-Bouly mine complex.
CEO of Nordgold, Nikolai Zelenski commented on the development of the solar field stating that “by building this new solar power plant, not only will we improve the efficiency of our mines by creating a more secure power supply at a lower cost, but we are also helping to make our Burkina Faso mines far more sustainable while minimizing our carbon footprint”. Zelenski’s comments here highlight just how valuable the solar field is in reducing the mine’s overall carbon footprint, whilst also delivering more economical solutions for the mine site for energy generation.
Across Nordgold’s operations, its mission to deliver value for every stakeholder, supplier and local community can be felt throughout every development. From the expansion of its mining operations since it began only 17 years ago, to its current development towards a more sustainable future, Nordgold will continue to deliver value through respect, safety, efficiency and collaboration.
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