Endeavour MiningCorp. said April 11 that it started construction at its 90%-owned gold project in BurkinaFaso, following board approval.

"Once in production, [Houndé] will become our flagship low-costmine and will rank amongst West Africa's top tier cash generating mines," saidCEO Neil Woodyer, who noted that the project is fully funded.

Construction is estimated to take 18 months to complete, withgold pour expected in the fourth quarter of 2017.

The project is expected to deliver average production of 190,000ounces per year over a 10-year mine life at all-in sustaining cost of US$709 perounce. Houndé is an open pit mine with a 3.0 million-tonnes-per-annum gravity circuit/carbon-in-leachplant.

Initial CapEx stands at US$328 million, inclusive of US$47 millionfor the owner-mining fleet.

Using a gold price of US$1,250 per ounce and a discount rateof 5%, Houndé's posttax net present value is at US$342 million, and internal rateof return is at 32%. Payback is in 2.2 years.

Houndé hosts proven and probable reserves containing 2.1 millionounces of gold within 30.6 million tonnes grading 2.11 g/t of gold.

Endeavour receivedthe final permit to develop and operate the project in February 2015.