Building a “Best in class” gold mine in Burkina Faso

Company profile

Roxgold Inc. is TSX-V listed gold mining company with its key asset, the Yaramoko Gold Project, located in the Houndé greenstone belt of Burkina Faso, West Africa. Yaramoko was first discovered in 2011 with the maiden resource released in August 2012 announcing a high-grade narrow vein underground gold project capable of 100,000 oz’s per year running up to 11 gram per tonne over its life of mine making it one of the highest grade “best in class” gold mines in the world.

Under the direction and leadership of the Board and Senior Management, construction of Yaramoko commenced in 2014 and in May 2016, Roxgold completed the outstanding achievement of its first gold pour 6 weeks ahead of schedule and $4M USD under budget.

“We are extremely pleased to be a producing Company, and are delighted to continue our track record of reaching milestones ahead of schedule,” commented John Dorward, Roxgold’s President and CEO. “We thank our shareholders, stakeholders in the community, employees, contractors, government officials and the board of directors for all of their continued support.”

Roxgold’s COO Paul Criddle commented, “Pouring gold thirteen months from breaking ground is an achievement that we can all be proud of and is a true testament of hard work, dedication and exemplary teamwork by the Roxgold team.

Assignment background & Scope

HR Management Plan & Expatriate Recruitment

Prior to Roxgold commencing the construction of Yaramoko, they engaged Globe 24-7 to provide full HR Management support for their expatriate workforce in preparation for operational readiness including:

Management of Roxgold’s staffing requirements within the Mining, Processing, Maintenance, Metallurgy, Health & Safety, Technical Services and Government Relations areas.

Global search program to identify, attract and select highly skilled and experienced professionals that (in some cases bi-lingual French/English) who had the right experience to walk through a construction project into operations within the limitations of a tight budget and timeline.

Development and implementation of the HR Management Plan that offered a robust but simple to use framework suitable for multiple-locations from Corporate Head Office (Toronto), in-country Head Office (Ougadougou) and site (Yaramoko) that catered to all HR policies, procedures and practices.

Our solution: best in class

Working closely with Toronto-based Chief Operations Officer, Paul Criddle and the site-based senior Management team, Globe assigned a small team over a 15 month period during 2014 and 2015 to implement a comprehensive HR Management Plan encompassing all areas of the expatriate workforce including:

• Commencement of Employment (Recruitment, Offers of Appointment, Medical Clearances, On-boarding, Employee Readiness & Inductions)
• Remuneration & Benefits (Employment Contracts, Salaries, Working Conditions, LTI, STI & other entitlements)
• Fair Treatment & EEO (Discrimination, Grievance Resolution, Harassment)
• Performance Management (Performance Appraisals, Discipline, Termination, Fitness for Work)
• Organisational Development & Training

Further to the work in Burkina Faso, Globe also supported Roxgold’s Toronto Head Office working closely with management in HR matters and staffing key critical roles within Industrial Relations, Sustainability and Geology through 2016.

The Results

An outstanding team who built a world class “best in class” gold mine

Globe’s RPO team built a comprehensive HR Management Plan supporting all major HR policy areas whilst covering a wide variety and far-reaching expatriate recruitment campaign that led to the successful appointments in the following areas:

• Government & Community Relations
• Mine Management, Technical Services, Mine Engineering, Mine Geology
• Metallurgy & Plant Maintenance and Gold Room, Electrical & Mechanical Supervisors
• Health & Safety

Roxgold’s expatriate team is represented from 14 different nationalities who all work tremendously well together and have achieved the ultimate exploration company’s goal – to turn a project into a ‘best in class’ producing mine.

Testimonial

A few words from Roxgold’s Chief Operating Officer (at the time)

We are very pleased to have had a partner like Globe 24-7 for the journey we have gone on. They have been flexible, creative, responsive and have fit well with our objectives in building Yaramoko. We are very pleased with the work they’ve done and very much part of our ongoing HR and Recruitment team.