They still have to do all the piping and electrical work in the process plant which can be time consuming.
I've always thought the schedule had some fat in it and they will come in a little bit earlier and get to first gold by Q2, rather than Q3.
The good thing about Kiaka is that the ore (with good grade) starts from surface and there is a lot of soft oxide material early on. Should be able to ramp up the mill very quickly to nameplate. If anyone remembers the early quarters at Sanbrado, the open pits started really well with lots of oxide but the underground was a solid 12 months later to get the volumes and grade up. That hampered some of the early perceptions of the mine and missing feasibility forecasts of costs etc.
Hard to see the same thing happening with Kiaka. Upside scenario is if they can run the mill above nameplate, which seems probable given Sanbrado runs at ~40% above nameplate and most other recent producers also run well above (eg. Tietto, Red5). Owning the mining fleet also means WAF can control that too (Tietto had problems with the mining contractor mobilising and keeping up with the mill throughput).
WAF Price at posting:
$1.86 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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