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For a gold company that spent years running a single mine in West Africa, the past few months have been a crash course in juggling two very different operations on two different continents. Orezone Gold Corporation (TSX: ORE) closed its first full quarter as owner of both its long running Bomboré mine in Burkina Faso and the newly acquired Casa Berardi mine in Quebec, and the results show a company still finding its rhythm as a two mine producer.
Between April and June, the combined operations produced 58,566 ounces of gold and sold 60,654 ounces, up sharply from the 38,789 ounces produced in the first quarter, when Casa Berardi had only been part of the company for five days. Over the first six months of the year, total production reached 97,355 ounces. The average price the company realized on its gold sales was $4,400 per ounce sold in the second quarter, reflecting the streaming arrangement tied to Casa Berardi with Franco-Nevada Corporation (NYSE: FNV), under which 1,625 ounces were sold at a fifth of the spot gold price during the quarter.
Bomboré, the mine Orezone built and started up in late 2022, remained the larger of the two operations. It milled just over 2.48 million tonnes of ore at a grade of 0.55 grams per tonne, yielding 38,063 ounces of gold. Mining crews moved more total tonnes than planned during the quarter, a welcome turnaround after explosives shortages had slowed work earlier in the year. Management expects the mine’s output to lean heavily toward the back half of 2026, as access improves to higher grade ore in the P17 pit.
Casa Berardi, acquired from Hecla Mining Company (NYSE: HL) on March 25, contributed 20,503 ounces from 364,284 tonnes of ore at a considerably richer grade of 2.01 grams per tonne. The mill there ran above its planned rate of 3,900 tonnes per day, averaging just over 4,000. Underground, the company added drilling and equipment to prepare for higher throughput in future quarters, while open pit mining continued at the F160 deposit.
That progress hit an unplanned obstacle last Friday, when a wildfire broke out roughly 7 miles southwest of the mine. Orezone chose to voluntarily halt operations at Casa Berardi as a precaution, a decision that remains in effect. Quebec has faced an unusually active wildfire season this year, with the Société de protection des forêts contre le feu, the province’s forest fire agency, battling roughly 200 fires and other mining companies in the region, including Wallbridge Mining, having evacuated camps or paused work at various points. Orezone said improving weather and ongoing firefighting efforts have it expecting to resume operations within days, and it does not anticipate the pause will affect its full year production guidance for the mine.
The broader backdrop for all of this is a gold market that has been unusually generous to producers. Prices have hovered above $4,100 per ounce through much of July, more than 20% higher than a year earlier, as central bank buying and persistent inflation concerns continue to support demand. That price environment helps explain why a company willing to absorb the complexity of integrating a second mine, on a different continent, with different infrastructure and a different regulatory environment, might see the trade-off as worthwhile.
Orezone plans to release full second quarter financial results after markets close on August 12, with a conference call scheduled for later that afternoon. Investors will likely be watching two things closely: whether Casa Berardi’s production ramps up as planned once the wildfire threat passes, and whether Bomboré delivers the stronger back half of the year that management has been promising since the start of 2026.
