Teranga has exploration properties in three jurisdictions, covering ~5,850km2 of land located on prospective gold belts in West Africa. Multi-jurisdictional exploration is key to Teranga’s diversification and scale. Focused on reserve development, Teranga has significantly increased company-wide reserves since its 2010 IPO.
In 2019, we invested $11 million towards exploration. This was slightly less than the prior year as exploration dollars were considered discretionary in order to preserve cash throughout the construction of Wahgnion. We directed the majority of these exploration efforts towards Golden Hill – our most advanced exploration project.
With Wahgnion complete, we will be expanding our exploration program in 2020 across all properties in our pipeline. The 2020 exploration budget is approximately $30 million to $35 million, allocated towards each of the three countries we operate in: Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Côte d'Ivoire.