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Operations
Ghana
Mauritania
Overview
Tasiast Gold Mine
Introduction
Location
Ownership
Geology/Mineralization
Development/Mining
Technical Reports
Photo Gallery
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Tasiast Gold MineIntroduction Red Back acquired the Tasiast Gold Mine from Lundin Mining Corporation in August, 2007. The Company paid a purchase price of US$225 million to Lundin Mining, repaid the Tasiast debt facility with Macquarie Bank Limited (US$42.5 million plus US$0.3 million interest) and retired the gold hedging structure (US$10.1 million). The Company is now the 100% owner of Tasiast, which is debt free and unhedged. The Tasiast Gold Mine was officially opened by the President of Mauritania, His Excellency Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, on July 18, 2007 with representatives of Red Back in attendance. Tasiast is now in commercial production. The Tasiast deposit is within an extensive gold system that is largely under-explored. The deposit is open along strike and at depth. Tasiast is the first mine in the highly prospective 70 kilometre long by 15 kilometre wide north-south trending Archaen age Aoueouat greenstone belt, which is geologically similar to other Archaen greenstone belts in the world that host major gold deposits. The Tasiast property covers a 60 kilometre strike length of the Aoueouat greenstone belt. The current mine plan only considers existing proven and probable reserves minable by conventional open pit methods. There is excellent potential for extension of the mine life based on the conversion of current resources into reserves. Red Back has commenced a significant drill program aimed at increasing the proven and probable reserves at Tasiast. Location The Company's land holdings in Mauritania consist of three permit areas totalling 16,222 km2 in area: the Tasiast, Ahmeyim-Tijirit and Karet. The Tasiast Permit Area is located in north-western Mauritania, approximately 300 km north of the capital Nouakchott and 162 kilometres east-southeast of the port city of Nouâdhibou. The Tasiast Permit Area falls within the administrative purview of the Inchiri and Dakhlet Nouâdhibou Districts and comprises five individual and contiguous PRMs totaling 6,306 km2 in area. Ownership Red Back Mining Inc. acquired the Tasiast project from Lundin Mining Corporation in August, 2007 following Lundin's acquisition of Rio Narcea Gold Mines, Ltd. The Tasiast mine and the mining lease on which it is based are owned 100% Tasiast Mauritanie Limited S.A. ("TMLSA"). TMLSA is owned by the Corporation through Red Back Mining B.V., a Dutch company. The mining lease is exclusive to TMLSA and is not subject to any option or joint venture arrangement. No back-in rights are held by any party. The taxation of mining operations is legislated within the mining law of Mauritania and is not generally affected by changes to taxation in other areas. The corporate tax rate for mining companies is 25%. A royalty is payable to the Government of Mauritania equal to 3% of gross revenue. Geology / Mineralization
Gold mineralization occurs in two parallel trends: the Piment Zone, which is continuous over a 4.5 kilometer strike length, and the West Branch, which has been defined by soils, trenching and limited drilling over a 500 m strike length. The Piment zone hosts the bulk of the resources and all reserves with five open pits defined over the strike of the mineralisation. Mineralization dips to the east between 45° and 70° and the shoots plunge at about 30° in a southerly direction. Mineralization widths vary between 5 and 30 meters with a 20 to 25 meter width common in the strongly mineralized areas. The rocks are oxidized to a depth of approximately 40 meters. Development / Mining All ore waste is mined via conventional, open pit mining methods. The operation utilizes selective mining techniques to separate ore and waste. The mining fleet is a combination of 120 tonne hydraulic excavators loading 90 tonne trucks. Provision has been made for drilling and blasting all primary materials. The treatment plant flowsheet is based on three stage crushing, ball milling, pre-leach thickening, and a six stage CIL circuit. Gold is recovered by an elution circuit with electrowinning of the gold onto wire wool cathodes. The loaded wire wool is smelted to produce a final bullion product. A gravity circuit will be installed in the grinding circuit to prevent build up of coarse gold during processing of the higher grade primary ores. The mine power is provided by eight 1.0MW diesel generators. Two 2.7MW HFO generator sets have been installed and are currently being commissioned. A third HFO set will be installed in 2009, following which four of the diesel generators will be decommissioned. The source of mine water supply is located 60 km west of the mine and is comprised of a semi-saline underground aquifer, which is exploited by eight wells. Water is pumped to the mine site through a 60 km HDPE water delivery pipeline to a 4000m3 storage facility at the mine site. A reverse osmosis water treatment plant provides drinking water. Based on positive results from the ongoing resource conversion drill program, an expansion of the Tasiast plant from 1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to approximately 2.5 mtpa has been approved. Orders have been placed for long lead time items, including a second ball mill and related equipment. Upon completion, expanded operations at Tasiast are expected to produce in excess of 200,000 ounces per annum. Tasiast Reserves The Company's consultants, AMC Consultants, re-estimated Ore Reserves for the Tasiast mine as at December 31, 2009.
The estimated split of the current Reserve by processing method (excluding heap leaching) is set out below:
Tasiast Resources Since the previous Mineral Resource calculation (News Release: November 16, 2009), the Measured and Indicated Resource at Tasiast has increased by 1.14 million ounces to 6.51 million ounces (at cut off grades of 0.2g/t for oxide and 0.5g/t for fresh material) to December 31, 2009. This is an increase of 21% in three months.
Operations Update Tasiast is now in commercial production and 13,768 oz have been produced this year to 19 February 2008. Tasiast remains on schedule to meet its production target of 110,000 oz for the year (News release: 8 January 2008). The Tasiast plant is being expanded to a throughput of approximately 2.5 million tones per annum (News releases: 3 December 2007 and 8 January 2008). The expansion is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2008. SENET, the EPCM contractor for the original construction of the Tasiast plant, has been awarded an EPCM contract for the plant expansion. The new contract covers all major work items for the expansion, including crushing circuit conveyors, an additional ball mill, installation of a gravity circuit and trash screen and the addition of an elution column. Following the installation of a new primary crusher in December 2007, new secondary and tertiary crushers have now arrived on site and the upgrade of the crushing circuit is expected to be complete by the end of February. The new ball mill is under construction and delivery to site is anticipated in the third quarter of 2008. The gravity circuit is now on site at Tasiast and studies have been commenced towards installation of the circuit in advance of the CIL expansion. The new Heavy Fuel Oil power plant is complete and commissioning is underway and is scheduled for full operation by the end of this quarter. Technical Reports
Photo Gallery Tasiast Gold Mine December 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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