TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian project developer True Gold on Wednesday reported that it had drawn down a further $20.7-million of the $100-million project financing agreement from Franco-Nevada Corporation and Sandstorm Gold.

This was the second drawdown that True Gold had made under the agreement, bringing the total amount drawn to $57.7-million. The company currently had about $47.4-million in the bank.

The company is currently focused on building the $131.5-million Karma gold project, in Burkina Faso, which it said was on schedule and on budget.

True Gold said that $56-million had been spent and committed to date, representing 42% of the total estimated capital budget.

The company said that it was still working to address the concerns voiced by certain individuals in the local community and expected to reach a resolution “shortly”.

True Gold had earlier this month reported that a "disturbance" in a local community had resulted in the company temporarily halting part of the construction activities at the project in order to ensure worker safety.

The TSX-V-listed project developer said that it was working closely with a delegation from the Burkina Faso Ministry of Mines, as well as the regional government to address the community’s concerns and ensure a timely return to normal operations.

Activity at the site was focused on fleet assembly and erecting structural steel buildings. The majority of the mining fleet had been delivered to site, including four dozers and two graders. The PC-3000 excavator, which arrived on site December 12, was currently being assembled.

The remaining mining fleet and equipment were expected to arrive within the next several weeks. The maintenance shop, welding bay, administration, security, and medical buildings had been completed. SC Global, our structural steel contractor, was currently constructing the mine and cyanide stores, and laboratory. 

Major earthwork projects, raw water storage pond, and the base for the heap leach pad were scheduled to start in January. True Gold continued to target commercial production by the end of 2015 and expected to produce about 150 000 oz of gold in 2016.