The mine is operated by Société des Mines de Taparko S.A. (“Somita”), a company 90% owned indirectly by Nord Gold plc, with the remaining 10% interest held by the Burkina Faso government.
The management of the Nordgold group has left the shareholding of the Taparko Mining Company (SOMITA). The shares have been transferred to Skygold Resources, a limited liability company (LLC) under Malian law.
Summary:
The Taparko gold mine is located along the eastern portion of the Proterozoic Birimian Bouroum-Yalogo Greenstone Belt. The belt has undergone regional lower greenschist metamorphism and is comprised of intermediate to mafic volcano-sedimentary successions with syn to post-kinematic granite and gabbro intrusions, which have been intruded by later dolerite and felsic-porphyry rocks.
Structural patterns in the area depict a large open Y-shape resulting from interference of NNW and NNE trending faults and shear zones. The most distinctive structural feature of this area is the NE trending Tiebele-Dori-Markoye fault system (and Bouroum NNW trending deformation corridor), which act as hosts to regional gold mineralisation. Primary and secondary structures associated the fault system result in mineralisation occupying both NE and NW trending features.
The Taparko deposits are situated on the eastern limb of the Y-shaped Bouroum-Yalogo greenstone belt, hosted by volcano-sedimentary rocks such as amphibolitic schists, mafic lavas, pyroclastics, and argillaceous sediments, all of which have been intruded by large bodies of diorite or quartz-diorite, and by diabase dykes.
The Bouroum and Yeou deposits are situated on the western limb of the Bouroum-Yalogo greenstone belt. The geology of the Bouroum and Yeou areas are characterised by clastic metasedimentary rocks intercalated with minor mafic tholeitic flows and sills and overlain by a thick series of subaqueous flows and tholeitic sills with intercalated, epiclastic and pyroclastic rocks. Metapelites, ferruginous quartzite and finally andesitic to dacitic volcanic rocks cap the older stratigraphy.
Gold mineralisation at the Taparko, Bouroum and Yeou deposits is predominately (sulphidepoor) quartz-vein hosted and controlled by shear-related veining and alteration.
At Taparko, gold mineralisation is developed in predominantly sediment-hosted structures, comprising anastomosing and shallow to steeply dipping shear zones, exhibiting multiple, superimposed, phases of veining, alteration and deformation. At Bouroum gabbro, basalts and tuffs (and notably their sheared contacts) represent typical host rocks, with metagabbro and granodiorite forming typical hosts at Yeou.
In general, across all deposits, the weathering profile is deep and typically results in extensive surface oxidation of bedrock to depths of up to approximately 100 m. In such areas, gold deposits typically comprise a surface oxide zone, an intermediate transition zone and a deeper fresh rock zone.