The gold mine pdf free download

Tarkwa is now a mature mine and the focus has shifted from exploration to optimising the extraction of the current Mineral Resource.

Infill diamond drilling programmes will also be considered where there is the need to increase resource definition to upgrade the Mineral Resource category ahead of mining and to provide detailed information for assessment of alternative select mining cuts of the reef packages.

Tarkwa is a large, established open pit gold mine that utilises selective surface mining methods to optimise the extraction of the sedimentary mineral deposits. The mine operates its own load and haul fleet of 14 excavators, ranging from to tons, 44 dump trucks with a payload of tons as well as ancillary equipment.

Equipment maintenance is carried out by MARC contractors. In F Tarkwa plans to mine a total of The mining methodology used is highly selective. The location of the mining areas is defined through the long term planning process. The boundaries of the pits are pegged out by survey and the area is cleared of bush and topsoil with a bulldozer. The topsoil is relocated for rehabilitation purposes.

After clearing, reverse circulation grade control drilling is carried out, and geological models constructed. The short-term plans and forecasts are updated with this grade control information prior to the commencement of mining. From the highest point in the pit, material is free-dug or blasted to the first blasting reference level.

Currently fresh rock and transitional zones are drilled and blasted in 6 m lifts, with excavation in 3 m flitches. Fourteen backhoe excavators are used to select waste from the ore, and vice versa, along the sedimentary horizons to an average accuracy of 30 cm on the hanging wall and 20 cm on the footwall of a reef. Pit Geologists and Geotechnicians supervise all digging and mineral material is classified as either RoM, delivered to one of two primary crushers, or low-grade, which is stockpiled close to the primary crushers.

Waste material is hauled to the nearest waste dump. Blasting currently utilises relatively close patterns and small diameter holes, typically a 3. Larger diameter holes and an increased grid size will be utilised in the partially weathered material, whilst decreased grid sizes will be utilised in harder material. The planning cycle commences with the ratification of key input parameters, prior to producing a compliant Mineral Resource statement adjusted for all Mineral Resource depletions.

Standard software is utilised to derive the optimal pit shell designs at a variety of cut-off grades. The detailed engineering and design work on the optimised pit shells and scheduling is carried out using these software packages.

For all operational plans, a detailed two-year operating and capital cost budget is produced and where appropriate extended for the LoM production schedule. Zero-based costing is used to formulate the two-year plan. Historically achieved data for productivity and operating costs, is utilised as the basis from which the operational budget is benchmarked.

All capital projects are ranked and prioritised to maximise capital efficiency and return on investment. The decreased availability of high dissolution high recovery ore that is amenable to heap leaching necessitated the reduced heap leach and expanded CIL milling capacity. The HPGR unit will crush 1 Mt of low dissolution material during F with the aim of determining improved gold recovery, heap stability at the finer crush and reliabilty of the HPGR equipment.

Positive results from this test will be considered for application at the North Heap Leach facility. Scoping studies have been carried out to assess the viability of relocating the South Facility primary crusher closer to Teberebie or Akontansi pit with the aim of using in-pit crushing and conveying to reduce mining costs.

The scoping studies have indicated that the most attractive option is to relocate the crusher to Teberebie pit for ore crushing. This will reduce mining costs and provide a risk mitigating alternative to the primary crusher currently feeding the CIL plant.

This project will be taken to pre-feasibility level in the future. Since all ore has been sourced from open pit mining operations and is currently processed at the 9. A third facility, the South Heap Leach facility was closed in December The ore is a free milling conglomerate with negligible sulphide content. Weathering has affected rocks near the surface and a higher degree of weathering is associated with increased porosity and increased Heap Leach dissolution and recovery.

The North Heap Leach was commissioned in to process the initial high porus ore. Phase V Heap Leach pad construction was completed in and a further three phases of Heap Leach pad construction have been accounted for in the LoM plan.

As the mine gets deeper so the percentage of weathered ore amenable to Heap Leaching decreases. This justified the construction of the CIL plant in and its subsequent expansion that was commissioned in January The North Heap Leach employs three stages of crushing prior to agglomeration.

Following agglomeration the ore is transferred by conveyor and stacked on the leach pads by a stacking conveyor. The heaps are irrigated with a cyanide solution which dissolves the gold as it percolates through the heaps.

The North facility has a smelt house with diesel fired furnaces to smelt all gold produced at the North facility. Underneath each stockpile is a reclaim tunnel, with apron feeders that feed onto a conveyor belt, which in turn feeds the milling circuit. The milling circuit is operated at a capacity of 1, tph. The CIL circuit consists of two trains of eight tanks in series fed from a common leach tank.

The loaded carbon passes into a 15 t acid wash column. The gold is recovered from the loaded carbon in two 15 t elution circuits. Gold is recovered from solution by electrowinning. The gold is smelted in the CIL smelt house in an induction furnace. Tarkwa manages risk to control and where possible, eliminate hazards in the working environment. Tarkwa strives to achieve and maintain an outstanding health and safety performance through the participation of all employees and the application of safe, innovative processes and technologies, within a framework of OHSAS and full compliance.

This aims to achieve:. The initiative has the broad support of all labour unions and associations, individual employees and management. Cyanide is managed under the framework of the International Cyanide Management Code. Under the Cyanide code, all suppliers and transporters of cyanide to the mine must comply with the code to ensure the safe use of cyanide.

Strict use of cyanide on site is continually monitored and necessary changes are incorporated into operational procedures. Tarkwa operations are operated in accordance with Ghanaian environmental requirements, as administered by the EPA, and hold the required Environmental Permits and valid Environmental Certificates. Tarkwa complies with the EPA requirements to provide monthly monitoring returns, an annual environmental report and an update of the EMP at intervals of three years.

The document was approved on 27 May A subsequent update was submitted in June Stockpile tonnage and grade estimates are based on accumulations of estimated tonnage and grades trucked throughout the history of the mine, and are therefore considered to be reasonably accurate. However, the grades and tonnages are discounted by five percent for processing purposes as experience has show that this is realistically achievable when reclaiming a stockpile.

RoM stockpile tonnages were reconciled to survey volumes in June Mineral Resources are quoted at an appropriate in-situ economic cut-off grade with tonnages and grades based on the resource block model. They also include estimates of any material below the cut-off grade required to be mined to extract the complete pay portion of the Mineral Resource.

The open pit grade tonnage curve represents undiluted grade and tons within the diluted optimised shell. Underground Mineral Resources are inclusive of dilution. All design and scheduling work is undertaken to an appropriate level of detail by experienced engineers using appropriate mine planning software.

The planning process incorporates appropriate modifying factors and the use of cut-off grades and other technical-economic investigations.

Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Reconciliation year-on-year. Read the ESG Report. Santa Luz construction progress. Greenstone: EQX's newest project.

Led by Ross Beaty as Chair, Equinox Gold is a well-financed, multi-asset mining company and one of the only gold producers of scale operating entirely in the Americas. The company has seven operating mines and is advancing five growth projects that will significantly increase production in the near term. Equinox Gold has the properties, the people and the plan to rapidly achieve its vision of producing more than one million ounces of gold annually.

Progress is documented in the Greenstone photo gallery. Work is underway to expand production at the Los Filos Mine Complex by developing a second underground mine and a third open-pit mine, with the potential to construct a carbon-in-leach plant to complement the existing heap leach facilities. Focused on Growth Led by Ross Beaty as Chair, Equinox Gold is a well-financed, multi-asset mining company and one of the only gold producers of scale operating entirely in the Americas.