Turaco Gold Managing Director Justin Tremain has outlined the company’s rapid growth at its Afema Gold Project in Côte d’Ivoire, telling investors the company has built one of West Africa’s leading gold development assets in under three years.
Turaco acquired its interest in Afema two and a half years ago when the project had no defined resource and the company carried a market capitalisation of around $20 million.
Since then, the project has grown to host a 4.7 million ounce gold resource, with an updated estimate due by year end expected to push that figure towards five million ounces.
Turaco’s market capitalisation has grown to approximately $800 million, with institutional investors now holding roughly 40 per cent of shares.
Tremain credited Côte d’Ivoire’s government policy, infrastructure and community support for enabling that pace of development.
“I don’t think that could be achieved in any other country in the world,” he said.
He noted that national gold production has quadrupled over the past decade, aided by the operating track record of established miners including Endeavour, Perseus and Fortuna.
Infrastructure has been a key differentiator for the project, according to Tremain.
Afema sits 32 kilometres from a hydro dam connected to the national grid, allowing the company to source power at roughly 14 cents per kilowatt hour, about a third of the cost of standalone generation.
A sealed road runs through the project site, with the planned process plant located just three kilometres off that route.
Geology has also underpinned the rapid resource growth.
The company controls a contiguous package of about 1,600 square kilometres in the southeast of Côte d’Ivoire, covering part of the Sefwi Belt, one of the most prolific gold belts in West Africa.
“We essentially have control of the Sefwi Belt as it extends into Côte d’Ivoire,” said Tremain.
The Afema resource spans a cluster of deposits within a five kilometre radius, anchored by the flagship Woulo Woulo deposit, which has grown to 1.7 million ounces since its discovery by Turaco. The separate Jonction deposit sits about 10 kilometres away.
Woulo Woulo carried no resource when Turaco acquired the project, and it is expected to underpin the project’s development.
The deposit is described as a straightforward, free-milling zone with recoveries above 90 per cent, featuring bulk mineralisation at a moderate grade of around one gram per tonne and a low strip ratio.
That ore will be supplemented by a series of higher-grade deposits along the Afema shear, beginning with the Jonction and Anuiri deposits, which sit at around two grams per tonne as open-pitable reserves.
The Afema project currently has a 10-year mine life and is forecast to produce more than 200,000 ounces a year for its first seven years, positioning it as one of the largest gold development projects on the African continent.
Turaco’s progress at Afema comes against a backdrop of strong sector activity in Côte d’Ivoire, where established producers have demonstrated the viability of large-scale gold mining.
The country’s gold sector has expanded substantially over the past decade, supported by stable government policy and growing infrastructure investment.
With the resource update due by year end expected to lift the project’s total ounces further, and with institutional investors continuing to build positions in the company, Turaco’s Afema project looks set to remain one of the standout gold development stories in West Africa heading into 2027.
