Becoming one of the longest-running operations in the company's West Africa portfolio with a site presence approaching five years, the geosynthetic lining systems for the waste storage facility and environmental ponds at the Essakane site were executed in close coordination with the Iamgold engineering team. Weekly QA/QC meetings conducted with the employer's site control engineers enabled panel layout plans to be rapidly adapted to revisions in site topography.

The short but intense rainy season of the Sahel belt caused the installation schedule to be squeezed into a narrow window; therefore, the deployment of the WSF base liner and weld quality controls were planned to reach specific elevations before the rainy season. To reduce the impact of dust storms on welding surfaces, the time between panel unrolling and welding was kept to a minimum, and mobile wind screens were used when necessary.

This long-term collaboration established with the employer made it possible to retain the same execution team for phase-by-phase expansion investments and ensured the transfer of site-specific know-how to new cell constructions.