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.
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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.
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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.
