MINING
MINING
Year one of production has a planned ore placement rate of 12,000 tpd on the PAD, which will operate at a placement rate of 20,000 tpd once ramped up to full production. During the initial 12 years, the average grade of the ore will be 0.54 g/t Au, with an average production of 91 Koz of recovered gold. During these years, the mine schedule will reach the maximum annual mining rate of 21 Mtpa.
From years 13 to 17, 100% of gold production will originate from 100% stockpile rehandle to PAD with an average grade of 0.30 g/t Au, producing 54 Koz of recovered gold as average. The final year completes the rehandle from stockpiles in two months.
The life of mine strip ratio (waste:ore) is estimated to be 0.85:1.
Mine design and estimation of the mining reserves were completed using conventional open-pit design methodology. The mine optimization design is based on computer analysis Whittle (Lerchs-Grossmann) using a gold price at 1,650 US$/Oz.
The pit design incorporates 10 m benches made up of 2 x 10 m mining benches utilizing a fleet of 90-tonne excavators and 43-tonne dump trucks. Mining operations will be performed exclusively by a mining contractor under a mining alliance style framework for the entire life of mine.
