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Byrnecut’s newest offshore contract for Canadian-owned Corp B2Gold has recently begun mobilization. The contract is for the new high-grade Wolfshag Underground Mine at the Otjikoto operation, which is around 320 kilometres north of Namibia’s capital, Windhoek.
Wolfshag is Byrnecut’s first mining contract in Namibia. The team includes 34 experienced expatriate miners from Australia, Indonesia, and other parts of Africa and 58 local Namibians and B2Gold Otjikoto staff, all working together to ensure the success of Namibia’s first underground gold mine.
Byrnecut said the client is currently upgrading the camp to accommodate all Byrnecut employees and ensure that it is a first-class facility. The contract for Wolfshag is valued at US$112 million and consists of both development and production, including a total of 10 km of development and a total material movement of 3.2 Mt. The underground fleet is main from Sandvik Mining & Rock Solutions and currently consists of one DD422i DC jumbo, one DD422i jumbo, two LH517i loaders, three TH551 trucks and a DL432i production drill rig.
In its full-year 2021 results, B2Gold stated: “Development of the Wolfshag underground mine continues to progress with ore production expected to begin in the first half of 2022. The initial underground Mineral Reserve estimate for the down-plunge extension of the Wolfshag deposit includes 210,000 oz of gold in 1.2 Mt of ore at 5.57 g/t gold.”
