The Firefinch Ltd (ASX: FFX) share price went underground today.
The gold miner and lithium producer announced this morning that mining had started at its West African site.
But despite the positive news, the Firefinch share price spent the entire day in the red and was down 6.78% at 83 cents apiece at market close.
Mining operations begin at Morila Super Pit
Morila Super Pit is a gold mine located in West Africa — one of two major Firefinch projects.
In fact, the miner is so proud of this site, they've nicknamed it Morila the Gorilla — earning its name for producing some of the highest gold grades in the world.
Now that mining has started, the company hopes to produce more than 100,000 ounces of gold per annum from the site.
To do so, the activities will be undertaken by Firefinch's primary mining contractor, Mota Engil, in conjunction with Malian group Interline (MEIM).
So far, Firefinch has moved the first material at the site, and now the next order of business is to pre-strip the waste.
The company said it expected ore mining to start during the second quarter of 2022, with the hope it would become a "consistent source of ore" soon after.
Comment from management
Firefinch managing director Dr Michael Anderson said the company was "well set up" for the work to come.
Morila Super Pit is where the greatest value for the business lies and, as we have done consistently to date, we have successfully delivered on another Morila development milestone.
Having previously stated that we'd commence mining at the Morila Super Pit in Q1 2022, we have broken ground in the first week of the quarter.
Firefinch share price snapshot
Over the last 12 months, the Firefinch share price has increased by a whopping 310%.
The miner has a market capitalisation of $971 million based on the current share price, and 1.17 billion shares issued.
