Gorilla in the mist: Firefinch eyes 100koz/pa as Morila Super Pit goes live

Firefinch is taking a major step towards ramping up Morila production to 100,000oz per annum with the start of mining at the Morila Super Pit in Mali.

The move comes mere days after the company and its partner Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium green-lit the Goulamina lithium project.

The Firefinch team are already pre-stripping waste from the first stage of the pit – once one of the largest and highest grade gold mines in the world – with Firefinch (ASX:FFX) forecasting ore mining will start during Q2 2022.

The Morila Super pit currently has a substantial Measured, Indicated and Inferred resource of 1.86Moz at 1.5g/t.

However, the company’s drilling also indicates there’s potential for much more following the identification of a new high-grade zone down dip and along strike from the resource not contained within the mine plan or resource.

Mining is being carried out by the company’s primary mining contractor Mota Engil in a joint venture with Malian group InterMine.

Greatest value

“Morila Super Pit is where the greatest value for the business lies and, as we have done consistently to date, we have successfully delivered on another Morila development milestone,” managing director Dr Michael Anderson said.

“Having previously stated that we’d commence mining at the Morila Super Pit in Q1 2022 we have broken ground in the first week of the quarter.

“Importantly we are now well set up for 2022; in addition to the fleet that has just commenced work we have a brand new 100 tonne mining fleet that will be on the go-line next week, and a fleet of larger 150 tonne units that will be commissioned in the coming months.

“Drilling is also ongoing and continues to provide us with increased confidence in the potential at Morila. We look forward to safely developing the Morila Super Pit and generating the full value that Morila the Gorilla has to offer.”

Morila the Gorilla

Since acquiring the Morila mine in late 2020, the company has taken the project from strength to strength as it progressed its goal to achieve gold output of 100,000oz per annum.

Notable results include the aforementioned high-grade gold hits, achieving strong gold production results in the last two quarters, and mining satellite pits such as Viper.

This article was developed in collaboration with Firefinch, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.