KGM PLC has officially submitted notice to Ethiopia’s Ministry of Mines regarding its upcoming first gold pour at the Kurmuk Mine, signaling a key milestone for the country's mining sector after years of exploration, engineering, and construction. The announcement comes as parent company Allied Gold Corporation completes final commissioning and moves the site in western Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz region into full operational readiness.
A primary operational foundation was completed with the successful energization of an 88-kilometre, 132-kV power line connecting the mine directly to the Ethiopian national grid. Constructed by Ethiopian Electric Power, the line supplies reliable electricity at a fixed rate of approximately US$0.04 per kilowatt-hour under a 20-year power purchase agreement, providing the low-cost energy needed to finish commissioning and scale up plant operations.
Processing activities reached an important step earlier this month when the first ore was fed through the newly commissioned crushing circuit, initiating the formal handover from the construction team to operations. Allied Gold expects to introduce ore to the grinding circuit in the coming weeks, with the official first gold pour to follow shortly after as remaining electrical, instrumentation, and systems testing wrap up across the facility.
Mining operations are advancing across the Dish Mountain and Ashashire open pits, which contain the property's entire current inventory of 2.7 million ounces in Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves. The company has already built an ore stockpile of approximately one million tonnes and plans to increase this reserve to nearly three months of plant feed ahead of full circuit commissioning to ensure a steady ramp-up to commercial production.
Designed as a conventional truck-and-shovel open-pit operation with a CIL processing plant, Kurmuk is set to become a cornerstone of Allied Gold's production growth. The mine is projected to produce between 240,000 and 270,000 ounces of gold in its first full year, expanding to approximately 300,000 ounces the following year, with an expected annual average of at least 240,000 ounces over an initial 15-year strategic target mine life.
