With a portfolio spanning multiple low-cost, long-life assets, Endeavour Mining (Endeavour) is a leading mineral producer in Africa. Its portfolio centres on West Africa, where it operates key mining assets in Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, and Burkina Faso, as well as many other vital development projects and exploration assets within the Birimian Greenstone Belt. In Côte d’Ivoire specifically, Endeavour operates the Ity and Lafigué Mines, which have experienced significant growth in recent years and are now delivering vital gold resources for the country. Across its exploration, mining, and prospective operations, Endeavour is focused on delivering both near and long-term growth opportunities, in line with its prospect pipeline and exploration strategy.
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Côte d’Ivoire has been a key hub for gold production in recent years, with gold mining across the Birimian Greenstone Belt experiencing significant development. Today, Côte d’Ivoire aims to become one of the largest gold producers in Africa by 2030 and, in turn, see the industry provide vital economic development for the country. Thus, with such vital gold-mining resources in the country, Endeavour is focused on expansion, exploration, and investment activities to support Côte d’Ivoire’s gold-producing future.
One of the most significant mines in Côte d’Ivoire is the Ity Mine, which is an open-pit mining operation located in the west of the country. The mine is one of Endeavour’s cornerstone mining assets and has been operating since 1991, when the first gold was poured from the project. Now, 35 years later, the Ity Mine has produced more than 1.4 million ounces (Moz) of gold. Endeavour acquired the Ity Mine in 2015 and later increased its stake to 85% in 2018. Now, the Ity Mine is owned by Endeavour with an 85% interest, alongside the Government of Côte d’Ivoire (10%) and Société pour le Développement Minier de la Côte d’Ivoire (SODEMI) (5%). In 2025, the Ity Mine saw 319 thousand ounces (koz) of gold produced, and reported around $1,195 per ounce All-In Sustaining Costs (AISC).
One of the most significant developments at the Ity Mine was the commissioning of a Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) Plant. The CIL Plant was built in early 2019, a year after Endeavour expanded its stake in the mine, and was designed to significantly boost the gold recovery and product capacity of the Ity Mine. The CIL Plant was initially built with a 3 Mega tons per annum (Mtpa) capacity; however, it was expanded to 4 Mtpa, and then to 5 Mtpa by late 2019. Having replaced a former heap leach operation, the CIL Plant has continued to support the mine over the last 7 years, maintaining an annualised throughput exceeding 5 Mtpa. Therefore, under Endeavour, the Ity Mine is now one of the company’s many gold-producing assets, delivering vital gold resources for West Africa.
As the Ity Mine looks towards the future, Endeavour is set to target between 1.0 and 1.5 million ounces (Moz) of mineral resources between 2026 and 2030. This follows Endeavour seeing the Ity Mine increase its reserves by 50% in 2024, and so its near-term exploration efforts are planned to focus on targets along the Ity trend. These include the Gbampleu, Guimapleu, Guya and Monta-Bâ targets, all of which are within the Toulepleu permit. Alongside these, the Mahapleu and Goleu targets are also planned to be explored.
One of the most significant developments sits is the Gbampleu target, located just 22km south of the Ity processing plant. The drilling at the site is currently focused on confirming the continuity of mineralisation at depth, where local high-grade zones of mineralisation have already been identified. Thus, the site is thought to be associated with a large intrusion-related gold system that could deliver vital resources for both Endeavour and Côte d’Ivoire in the long term. Therefore, for Endeavour, the Toulepleu permit represents a long-term resource potential for the country. Scoping studies are currently underway at the mine.
The other significant mining project under Endeavour in Côte d’Ivoire is the Lafigué Mine. The Lafigué Mine is located in the north-central region of the country, towards the north end of the Birimian-aged Oumé-Fetekro Greenstone Belt. Endeavour holds 80% ownership of the Lafigué Mine, alongside the Government of Côte d’Ivoire (10%) and SODEMI (10%). Endeavour began exploration at the Fetekro property in March 2017, following a key assessment of its exploration tenements, which identified the mine as a top-priority target. Today, the Lafigué Mine is the fifth project developed by Endeavour in West Africa in the last decade, and was delivered on budget and ahead of schedule.
In 2024, Endeavour announced that it had poured the first gold from the Lafigué Mine, marking the successful delivery of the project. Speaking on this achievement, Ian Cockerill, Chief Executive Officer of Endeavour Mining, said, “We are proud to have achieved our first solid pour at Lafigué, which, alongside the first gold pour at the Sabodala-Massawa BIOX® expansion that we achieved in April, marks the successful completion of the recent phase of investment and growth that we started in Q2-2022. We now begin a new phase of increased free cash flow generation, de-levering and enhanced shareholder returns.”
Cockerill adds, “With the current phase of organic growth completed, we are now focused on quickly ramping up our recent development projects to maximise their returns and support our near-term capital allocation priorities of de-levering our balance sheet and enhancing our shareholder returns.” As we can see from Cockerill’s comments, Endeavour is set to continue enhancing the Lafigué Mine and its surrounding resource potential, to bring significant resources and economic development to support its operations and shareholders for many years to come.
In terms of future development, Lafigué is a greenfield discovery, in which Endeavour has already discovered over 3 Moz of Measured and Indicated (M&I) Mineral Resources since it began operations on the asset in 2018. Thus, with strong exploration potential, the Lafigué Mine will continue to be a key target for Endeavour going forward to further extend Lafigué’s resources, whilst testing several additional exploration targets identified within 10km of the original Lafigué pit.
In December 2025, Endeavour outlined its exploration outlook for the next 5 years. The plan highlights the company’s target to discover 12-15Moz of mineral resources, at a cost of less than $40 per ounce between 2026 and 2030. Endeavour aims to maintain and extend mine lives beyond a 10-year target across near mine brownfield exploration, through the targeted discovery of 6-9Moz of mineral resources. Then, for greenfield exploration targets, the focus will be on the discovery of 6Moz of mineral resources, including between two and three new standalone cornerstone greenfield projects that will focus on West Africa. Then, for new exploration, Endeavour will build upon the successful completion of two previous exploration campaigns over the 2016-2025 period, which delivered 20.7Moz of M&I resources, equivalent to 2.4 times the production depletion, at a discovery cost of less than $25 per ounce. This included two cornerstone greenfield projects, Lafigué and Assafou, which were discovered in this period at a discovery cost of $12 per ounce and $11 per ounce, respectively. Thus, as Endeavour looks towards the future, key exploration will remain central to its capital allocation, with an average annual exploration spend expected to exceed $100m over the 2026-2030 period.
Speaking on Endeavour Mining’s exploration outlook over the coming years, Ian Cockerill, outlined, “Since 2016, we have consistently generated significant value through the drill bit. We have replaced more than double our production depletion with high-quality, high-grade ounces, allowing us to extend mine lives and improve our asset quality. In doing so, we have discovered two top-tier greenfield projects that have been quickly advanced to become cornerstone projects in our portfolio.” Cockerill continues, “Our strong track record, highly prospective land packages and high calibre team give us the confidence to set a new, ambitious exploration target; the discovery of between 12 and 15 million ounces of resources over the next five years at a discovery cost of less than $40 per ounce.” We can see from Cockerill’s comments that Endeavour’s exploration operations continue to bring vital high-quality and high-grade resources to its portfolio, and this will remain a key focus for the company’s exploration operations over the coming years.
Across Endeavour’s portfolio in West Africa, and specifically its exploration operations in Côte d’Ivoire, the company is focused on offering vital near-term and long-term growth assets. Both the Ity and Lafigué Mines present a wealth of exploration potential, alongside the key deposits nearby, with the central goal to deliver high-quality mineral resources. Across its portfolio, Endeavour continues to enhance West Africa’s role as a global mineral producer, supported by the company’s track record of operational excellence, project development and exploration operations.
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