The Kiniero gold project involved restarting open-pit mining operations at the historic Kiniero gold mine in the Republic of Guinea, West Africa.
Production from the Kiniero open-pit mine was started by Canada-based gold miner Semafo through its subsidiary Semafo Guinée in 2002. The mine produced 418,000oz of gold during its 12-year operational history until it was put under care and maintenance in early 2014.
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Sycamore Mining acquired the property in 2019. Canadian mining company Robex Resources became the owner and developer of the project through its merger with Sycamore Mining in April 2022.
A pre-feasibility study (PFS) for the project was completed in August 2022. Construction of the project started in the fourth quarter of 2022.
A feasibility study (FS) was released in June 2023, followed by an updated feasibility study in January 2025.
The study highlighted a mining life of nine years with an average annual production capacity of 154,000oz through to year six for an initial investment of approximately $243m.
Mining operations at the project commenced in October 2025.
The project achieved its first gold pour in December 2025 and reached commercial production in February 2026 after meeting the required benchmarks under the Senior Secured Facility Agreement with Sprott and the Guinea Mining Code.
This status was confirmed following its first gold shipment, totalling 6,336 troy ounces, the equivalent of 197kg.
Kiniero gold project location
The Kiniero gold project is located 5km north-west of Kiniero in the Kouroussa Prefecture, Kankan, Guinea.
The project represents one of the largest gold licences in Guinea. It comprises a 470km² exploitation and exploration land package including the adjoining Kiniero and Mansounia licence areas.
Geology and mineralisation details of Kiniero project
The Kiniero gold project lies within the Siguiri Basin in the Birimian Greenstone Belt of West Africa. The geology of the project area is characterised by volcanic and sedimentary lithologies comprising fine-grained sedimentary rocks and intrusive volcanic rocks in greenschist facies.
Gold mineralisation at Kiniero is hosted in shear zones and is typically associated with late-orogenic and structurally controlled medium-grade lodes occurring within quartz veins or in quartz-veined fracture zones with inter-mineralisation intrusives.
The property is divided into five clusters of gold deposits, namely Balan, Jean, Mansounia, Sabali, and SGA. The Kiniero gold project is currently focused on developing the SGA, Jean, SGD and Sabali clusters.
Gold reserves at Kiniero
The probable mineral reserves at Kiniero are estimated to be 45.5 million tonnes (mt) grading 0.97 grams per tonne (g/t) gold with 1.41 million ounces (moz) in contained gold as of January 2025.
Mining methods at Kiniero
Kiniero is developed as a contractor-operated, conventional open-pit mining operation with a waste-to-ore strip ratio of 2:1.
The open pits are being developed at the SGA, Jean, SGD, Sabali South, Mansounia and Sabali North and Central pits. Mining is carried out on 5m benches and 2.5m flitches using Komatsu PC1250 excavators supported by a fleet of 40t Komatsu HM400 haul trucks.
Mining of the upper oxide horizons is being undertaken by free-dig methods, while drill-and-blast is used where operations pass through transitional zones into fresh rock.
The run-of-mine (ROM) ore is classified by lithology and grade using in-pit grade control and transported to the mine ore pad, with waste material moved to the nearest available waste dump.
Ore processing at Kiniero
The processing plant design features a nominal throughput of five million tonnes per annum (mtpa), with fresh ore comprising 35% of the mill feed. It is intended to accommodate an increase to 6mtpa, with fresh ore reducing to 18% of the feed blend.
The ore is treated on site at a centrally located processing facility positioned close to the mining areas.
The ROM ore undergoes crushing in a primary jaw crusher and grinding in a semi-autogenous grinding mill. The ground ore is then fed to the cyclone feed pump box. The hydrocyclone underflow feeds the gravity circuit, where the undersized ore gravitates to the gravity concentrator.
The slurry is then thickened and introduced to the carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit. Gold particles adsorbed onto activated carbon within the CIL circuit undergo elution in a pressurised Zadra elution circuit.
Gold is then stripped from the activated carbon in the electrowinning circuit. The recovered metal is smelted and refined in the gold room furnace before being cast into moulds to produce gold doré bars.
Site infrastructure at the Kiniero gold mine
The mine site is accessible from the Balan-Kiniero regional road.
The project plans to use a hybrid power plant combining heavy fuel oil generators of around 28MW with a solar photovoltaic installation rated at 21MWp, equivalent to 16MW AC, alongside a battery energy storage system (BESS) of 5.2MWh, providing 4MW of usable capacity through a 4MW power conversion system.
Process water is recirculated from the tailings storage facility, while raw water is being extracted from the existing mining pit lakes and boreholes for storage in the freshwater tank.
Contractors involved in the Kiniero gold project
Australian mining services provider Mining Plus prepared the PFS for the Kiniero gold project. AMC Mining Consultants provided mining operating cost estimates and reviewed the feasibility study results.
ABS Africa provided environmental, social and governance (ESG) consultancy services for the project.
Mine Planning Solutions provided the mine planning and mineral reserve estimates.
Epoch Resources provided the tailings storage facility design while GeoStratum and TREM Engineering were engaged to conduct geohydrological and geotechnical studies for the project.
Canada-based mineral processing consultant Soutex was engaged to undertake the detailed process plant design and provide processing cost estimates.
Vivo Energy is building a hybrid power plant and serves as an independent power producer for the project.
Mining operating cost estimates for the updated feasibility study were prepared by AMC Consultants while processing costs were prepared by Primero with input from Knight Piésold on the tailings storage facility.
