The project, which increases capacity by almost 50% from 750t per day (270,000t per year) to 1,100t/d (400,000t/y), wrapped up both ahead of schedule and 10% - about US$2.8 million - under budget.

According to Roxgold, the expansion maintains the simple and robust design philosophy that was implemented originally at the Yaramoko plant, which has generated recoveries in excess of 98%.

The work included the addition of a secondary crusher circuit with a 100t/h throughput, the conversion of its SAG mill to a ball mill, the expansion of its carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit with two adsorption tanks and an additional thickener, and the expansion of the gravity circuit. It also implemented additional raw water storage and power reticulation infrastructure.

Roxgold said, going into the March quarter of the new year, it will now continue ramp-up of the Bagassi South mine as it targets commercial production in the June quarter. It had met about 668m of development as of the end of November.

"We are now looking forward to increasing production at Yaramoko and ramping up to full capacity at both the process plant and Bagassi South, where we expect to deliver approximately 150,000oz of gold from our Yaramoko operations in 2019," president and CEO John Dorward said.

Roxgold's Yaramoko is located in the Houndé greenstone belt region in the province of Balé in south-western Burkina Faso.