Montage Gold’s Koné mine in Côte d’Ivoire has achieved its first gold pour on budget and ahead of schedule. The milestone marks the company’s transition from mine construction to gold production.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Martino De Ciccio, CEO of Montage Gold, about the significance of the first pour and the next steps as the operation ramps up.
Key Takeaways
- The existing mine plan projects annual gold production of about 350,000 ounces in the initial years.
- De Ciccio said resources have increased to 8.3 million ounces, with newly discovered ounces averaging grades 85 per cent higher than those in the initial study.
- Investment in ports, roads and electricity infrastructure, along with early workforce training, helped support construction.
- De Ciccio described Côte d’Ivoire as supportive of mining, citing its permitting process and diversified economy.
- Higher gold prices could accelerate investment returns and help fund development of the Didievi project.
Read the full transcript below:
LINDSAY: Montage Gold has achieved its first gold pour at its flagship Koné mine in Côte d’Ivoire. Let’s hear more now about the project from Martino De Ciccio, CEO of Montage Gold. It’s great to have you join us. Thanks for coming on.
MARTINO: Glad to be here.
LINDSAY: So, the first gold pour at Koné. You also processed more than 400,000 tonnes of gold since the beginning, roughly the beginning of September. How did those numbers compare to internal expectations?
MARTINO: We poured gold about six months early. Initially, we were expecting to pour gold in Q2 2027. Then we said late this year, and finally we’re able to pull it forward by an extra month, and that’s thanks to our in-house construction capabilities.
LINDSAY: Can you elaborate on that? Because I was going to ask you about that, right? Like, you did target for Q2 2027. What specifically went right that allowed you to pull that forward by a full quarter?
MARTINO: We’re doing the construction on a self-performed basis. We brought our own construction equipment, and we have 3,600 people on site, having worked diligently to get this project up and running on budget and ahead of schedule. So, we brought a team on board that’s built already four mines in the region. Koné is now the fifth mine that the team has built. In fact, it’s the ninth mine for Côte d’Ivoire. So now Côte d’Ivoire has nine mines. It’s been one of the fastest-growing countries in terms of production growth, so it’s being, you know, the right asset with the right team in the right country.
LINDSAY: And what kind of a milestone is, like — obviously, it’s quite significant for Montage, but can you, can you maybe explain the significance of this? Just how big of a milestone it is for the company?
MARTINO: It allows us to transition to become one of, one of the more relevant gold producers in the region, with already a production of over 350,000 ounces runway based on the mine plan that was published in 2024, and obviously we expect to do better than that, given the high-grade deposits that we brought into the mine plan. You know, but this milestone is obviously huge for Montage. It’s big for the country. Shows that we’re able to put assets into construction in a timely fashion. But it’s also great for the industry to see that companies such as Montage can fund and build on time and on budget.
LINDSAY: How close are you now to moving to consistent commercial production?
MARTINO: Ramp-up has gone very well, so we expect to announce commercial production later this quarter.
LINDSAY: How much gold production are you targeting annually when that actually eventually happens?
MARTINO: The last mine plan published showed the first years at 350,000 ounces per year. Given the high-grade satellite deposits that we found, so we’ve increased our resources from five million to 8.3 million ounces. But more importantly, every ounce we found, on average, is 85 per cent better grades than the initial study. So that will boost production upfront and sustain that level for at least 10 years.
LINDSAY: Building a mine in northern Côte d’Ivoire is not an easy task, I would imagine. Like, what were some of the biggest challenges your team had to solve during the construction period to get to where you are today?
MARTINO: What’s been key is good infrastructure in the country. So the country has done a great job reinvesting into ports, road access and the, the power grid. So, for us, we had port and road that went all the way 20 kilometres to site. And again, bringing a team that has done this over and over again de-risks the build. So we were able to ramp up extremely quickly. We started our training programs ahead of launching construction. So we had a workforce that was ready to go as soon as the financing was put in place and the rainy season had, had finished back in late 2024.
LINDSAY: It’s interesting, though. Like, whenever you have projects in different countries, right? You have to deal with potential political headwinds, different politics as well from here. First Quantum is an example of this. It had operations in Panama, and the Panama government has said it’s going to shut down those operations. So, what, what’s the political environment like for Côte d’Ivoire, and where your mine is located?
MARTINO: Côte d’Ivoire is very supportive of the mining industry. We’re able to get our permits very quickly after joining Montage in early 2024. Koné is now the ninth mine in the country. When I started 20 years ago, I was working for the company that had the only mine in the country. So it shows the progression of the country. It’s a diversified economy, so they don’t just depend on mining. They export oil and gas. They’re big in agriculture. Abidjan’s become the financial hub of the region, so it’s become a very vibrant economy, vibrant cities, and the future looks bright for mining in, in Côte d’Ivoire.
LINDSAY: How much does the current gold price environment change the potential returns for Koné?
MARTINO: Of course, with the higher gold price environment, allows us to be able to bring forward our returns on investment, and that’s great because we have a great use of capital. We’re already looking at how can we build the next mine. So we have the Didievi project that we’ve been working on increasing the resource base and engineering to be able to launch the next construction as soon as, soon as possible.
LINDSAY: What — as soon as possible? When, roughly? What does that mean?
MARTINO: Well, we’re working on increasing the resource base, engineering, and it’d be great to be able to roll a construction team from one build into the next to execute on our goal of being able to create a premier African gold producer.
LINDSAY: Because, I mean, tell us a bit more about the potential of gold production in Africa. It sounds like there is quite a lot of potential there.
MARTINO: It’s been the No. 1 region globally for discoveries in the last decade. It’s been the fastest-growing region in terms of production growth, and Côte d’Ivoire has been leading the way. The team that we have at Montage, we’ve been directly responsible for over 20 million ounces of discoveries in the last 15 years, and of course, some of that success is now with our own portfolio, with the Koné mine and the Didievi project.
LINDSAY: OK, we will leave it there. Martino De Ciccio, CEO of Montage Gold. Thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate your time.
MARTINO: It was a pleasure to be here.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the Sept. 30, 2026 interview with Martino De Ciccio are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
