TORONTO-listed Endeavour Mining said it had discovered 1.2 million ounces in gold resources at its Côte d’Ivoire prospect Fetekro after spending $10m in exploration – a find as large as the firm’s former property Agbaou when it started production in 2014.
“We are therefore eager to advance our exploration efforts to continue to grow the resource base while initiating various environmental and technical studies,” said Endeavour Mining CEO, Sébastien de Montessus in a statement.
Endeavour, which has built a portfolio of West African gold mines through deal-making, said in May that it wasn’t interested in additional merger and acquisition activity, preferring instead to reap the benefits of recently developed mines.
It would however, focus on brownfields growth and potential new mines from its greenfields exploration portfolio.
Said De Montessus today: “From a broader perspective, while our immediate focus is on cash flow generation, we are very excited with the internal growth optionality being generated in parallel through our exploration success as it leaves us well poised for future growth”.
“2019 is the turning point for us,” said De Montessus in May, a comment that echoed statements a month earlier in which he said the calendar year represented an “inflection point” for the company. “The first and second quarter are the end of significant capital expenditure that we started three years ago.
