273,941 oz/gold
FY23 Total Production
12+ years
Life of Mine
2.8 million oz/gold
M&I RESOURCES
2.1 million oz/gold
P&P Reserves
Yaouré Mine
Yaouré Gold Mine, in central Côte d’Ivoire, poured first gold in December 2020, becoming Perseus’s third operation. Perseus declared Commercial Production at Yaouré in March 2021.
In September 2023, Perseus extended Yaouré’s operational life to 12+ years (to at least 2035). Yaouré is expected to produce ~210,000oz gold per year over the next five years of its mine life (to 2029) at an average AISC of ~US$1,104.
There is potential for Perseus to further extend Yaouré’s mine life through additional discoveries adjacent to existing infrastructure and further resource definition drilling of known deposits, including the Yaouré open pit and CMA underground structure.
Development of Yaouré started in May 2019 and progressed on time and on budget allowing Perseus achieved a stretch target of pouring first gold at Yaouré in December 2020.
Since 2020, ore at Yaouré has primarily been mined from the CMA open pit, with some contributions from minor satellite pits. CMA open pit stage 2 and stage 3 cutbacks are due to be completed during FY24 and FY25 financial years respectively, whereafter mining will move on to satellite pits and the recently expanded Yaouré open pit.
Perseus completed a CMA UG feasibility study in August 2023, proving the technical and economic viability of underground mining of the CMA orebody, down dip and down plunge of the stage 3 CMA open pit. Underground mining of the CMA orebody is expected to begin in early FY26, once all related approvals have been received.
Geology
Yaouré lies within the eastern half of the informally named Bouflé greenstone belt in central Côte d’Ivoire. The belt is a north-north-east-trending assemblage of Palaeoproterozoic volcanic, sedimentary and intrusive rocks of the Birimian Supergroup.
Gold mineralisation at the Yaouré has been subdivided into two main zones: the CMA Zone and the Yaouré Zone.
The CMA zone is a relatively continuous 20-45m thick fault zone featuring quartz-carbonate (dominantly ankerite) veining and disseminated pyrite in albite-carbonate altered metabasalt wall rocks. It strikes approximately north-south, dips at 30 degrees to the east, extends along 1,200 metres strike and its down-dip continuity has been tested for in excess of 450m.
The Yaouré Zone comprises a system of structures in a 300m wide zone, 200m stratigraphically below the CMA Zone and beneath the Yaouré Cen-tral Pit. Gold mineralisation is hosted by a series of brittle-ductile structures divided for convenience into ‘Y’ and ‘S’ types. The ‘Y’ fault zones, parallel to CMA, consist of Y1, Y2 and Y3 – shallow easterly dipping reverse faults with associated albite, carbonate and quartz veins in variably altered host rocks with disseminated pyrite. The ‘S’ type structures comprise sub-vertical faults filled with quartz-tourmaline veins. The ‘S’ type structures are oriented southwest-northeast and northeast-southwest. Mineralisation in the Yaouré Zone is hosted by metabasalts and by a north-south trending granodiorite intrusive body.
Yaouré Production Process
Workforce & Community
We employ more than 1,200 employees and contractors at Yaouré Gold Mine. About 93% of our workforce are Ivorian nationals and 48% are drawn from the villages nearest the mine.
Perseus implemented a similar community engagement model at Yaouré to that successfully employed at Sissingué. As required under Ivorian law, 0.5% of the revenue generated by Yaouré is paid into a Community Development Fund, from which a range of community determined, infrastructure and livelihood development projects are funded.
Find out more about our Community Approach in our Sustainable Development section.
Perseus Mining Yaouré Site Visit
