Yaramoko Gold Mine: 40 Hires for Start-Up Phase

It’s an understatement that commissioning a new mine is a challenge. But commissioning your first mine almost 14,000km from headquarters in a geopolitically volatile country is something else altogether.

Back in 2014, RoxGold—now part of Canadian-based Fortuna Silver Mines—were ramping up the Yaramoko gold mine, their first production project.

Located in the southwest of Burkina Faso, 200km from the capital Ouagadougou, it comprises two underground gold mines and a processing plant with a throughput of 273,750tpa.

Being their inaugural mine, the stakes were high. They didn’t want to risk missing their commissioning deadline on the foundational project.

They knew getting the right people on the ground was critical. The top priority was sourcing candidates with the right technical capabilities. However, the company also needed candidates who could work well with both the site team and head office management in Perth, Western Australia.

The challenge: Finding technically-skilled candidates

“For a project of this size, it’s important to have the technical capabilities to build a strong local team and put solid foundations in place for the project,” says Daniel Shaw, EMEA Regional Manager, Globe 24-7.

For Yaramoko, RoxGold’s HR team needed to build a well-rounded project team of expats, a highly skilled operations team, and local support.

“That meant finding candidates with deep experience in underground mining, gold processing, and working in Africa in challenging conditions,” says Daniel.

40 hires for project development and start-up

We worked with the RoxGold team to recruit more than 40 expats for the project and start-up phases of the mine.

That included:

• General Manager
• Country Manager
• Project Manager
• Sustainability Manager
• Vice President of Geology
• Vice President of Technical Services
• Metallurgists
• Mine Superintendents
• Senior Level Geologists
• Process Engineers
• Senior Managers

Each candidate was thoroughly vetted by us with pre-employment checks, interviews, medicals, and government permits. We also helped support the team with recruitment in the local market.

This reduced the administrative and project management burden at a crucial point in the project’s start up.

The outcome: Successful start-up

The team delivered first pour in May 2016, ahead of schedule and within budget—and has set the standard for the company’s future projects.

Daniel reflected that close to 10 years on, the success of the initial team is still prevalent.

“It’s great to see a lot of the original team still with RoxGold in Africa or promoted by parent company Fortuna Silver Mines into other areas of the global business,” he said.

“It shows that the people that the HR team selected from our search are extremely capable from a technical perspective, but also a good culture fit for the company.”

“We’re proud to work with RoxGold and Fortuna as new projects come online around the globe.”