• All major mining equipment on site, with open-pit mining ramping up
• Crushing circuit commissioning completed, with first batch of ore through circuit
• Wet plant construction completed, and commissioning progressing well

West African Resources Limited (WAF) has provided an update on the construction and mining progress at its Kiaka Gold Project in Burkina Faso. All major mining equipment has been delivered to the site, with three 200t excavators and an initial ten 140t haul trucks now operational. Mining volumes have exceeded 18,000 bcm per day shift, and will increase further when night shift operations start later this month. A total of 800,000 bcm of material from the Kiaka Main pit was mined to the end of April 2025, with a focus on stripping waste material for construction of the run of mine (ROM) pad, which has now been completed. Ore mining is steadily increasing in preparation for the commencement of processing operations, with 184kt of ore from the Kiaka Main pit stockpiled on the ROM pad by the end of April 2025. Construction of the processing plant has continued to progress on schedule, with the primary crushing circuit now completed and an initial batch of 20kt of ore processed through the crusher. Construction of the wet plant has also been completed, and commissioning activities are progressing well. The tailings storage facility (TSF) has been fully lined, with the installation of the flownet geotextile layer nearing completion. The 225kV grid power to Kiaka is well-progressed for connection in Q3 2025, with genset backup power currently being used for commissioning activities. Overall, the Kiaka project is on schedule and on budget for first gold production in Q3 2025.

WAF is on the cusp of having two long-life, unhedged, low-cost gold production centres in operation in 2025, which will see WAF more than double annual gold production to over 420,000 ounces per year.