Paracatu Mine, Paracatu, Brazil
Location
Paracatu, Brazil
Ownership
Rio Paracatu Mineraçäo (RPM), a subsidiary of Kinross Gold
Operations Started
1987
Production
482,397oz Au (2010)
Reserves
Proven and probable reserves: 1.4 billion tons; Measured and indicated resources: 356Mt.
Mining Method
Open pit
Mine Life
Up to 2040
| The Paracatu gold mine is located in Brazil, north of Paracatu city and nearly 230km from the capital city of Brazil, Brasília. Operations at the open pit property began in 1987. The mine is owned by Canada-based company Kinross Gold and is operated by Rio Paracatu Mineração (RPM), a 100% subsidiary of Kinross. The company first acquired its 49% stake in the mine in 2003 with the merger of TVX Gold, another Canadian mining company.  Kinross became the sole owner of the mine in 2004 when it purchased the remaining 51% stake from Rio Tinto. The mine produced 482,397oz of gold in 2010.Natural reserves at the Brazilian Paracatu gold mine The combined proven and probable reserves amount to 1.4 billion tons graded at 0.39g/t Au. Resources in the measured and indicated category total 356mt graded at 0.33g/t Au. Geology of the site The deposit is a metamorphic gold structure hosted within the lowermost section of the Upper Proterozoic Paracatu Formation, that is regionally known as the Morro do Ouro sequence. The Morro do Ouro sequence is a complex of highly deformed phyllites. Mineralisation and rock formations "The combined proven and probable reserves amount to 1.4 billion tons." Mineralisation is syn-deformational with the rock thrusting of the sequence from west-southwest to east-northeast and is restricted to the finely laminated phyllites. A 120m to 140m thick, high strain zone with a gentle, southwest dip hosts the anamalous gold and sulphide mineralisation. The strain zone extends more than 6km along a northeast-southwest trend. Within the strain zone, ore grade varies according to geologic features, including boudins, extent of shearing and the content of arsenopyrite. Mineralisation has been segmented into four horizons designated - C, T, B1 and B2 - based on the extent of oxidation and surface weathering and related sulphide mineralisation. Reserves are hosted in the B1 and B2 horizons, with the C and T horizon exhausted due to mining. Gold is hosted as free gold or electrum with sulphide mineralisation. Mining and processing carried out at the site The deposit is mined using open pit methods. Historically, the mine did not require any blasting. It is usually ripped pushed and loaded on to the carriers. Blasting of the harder ore hosted in certain sections of the mine began in 2004. The ore is broken using CAT D10 dozers and loaded using CAT 992 front-end loaders. The ore is delivered to the crusher in CAT 777 haul trucks. Run-of-mine is transported by 240t capacity rear-dump haul trucks to the 480t crusher dump hopper. Processing is carried out in a 61mtpa processing plant. The primary crusher is installed within the open pit. The ore is crushed to 25mm and the circuit ball mill grinds it to 80%. Sulphide and gravity concentrates are produced in the ball mills. The concentrates are grinded again in the ball mill and leached in cyanide in the carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant. Dore bars of gold are produced from the metal recovered from the leached carbon. Expansion of the Brazilian Paracatu gold mine An expansion was undertaken in 2006 to increase the ore processing facilities at the mine from 18mtpa to 61mtpa. The expansion was necessitated after an exploration drilling found an increase in the mine reserves. The expansion is expected to extend the mine's operations until 2040. "Gold is hosted as free gold or electrum with sulphide mineralisation." The new plant became operational in 2008. It includes a crusher, a 20MW semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill, a 13MW ball mill, a gravity plant and a flotation plant. The older plant processes soft B1 ore while the new plant processes both B1 and harder B2 ore. Both the plants were operating at a capacity of 20mtpa. An additional ball mill of 13MW became operational at the new plant in June 2011 increasing the new plant's capacity to 41mtpa. This processes the hard B2 ore. A fourth ball mill is scheduled to be operational in the first half of 2012. A single hydrometallurgical plant caters to both the plants. This was expanded in 2008 to cater to the increased processing capacity. Kisladag Gold Mine, Usak, Turkey Kisladag gold mine is located in the Usak province of Turkey. It is 100% owned and operated by Tuprag Metal Madencilik Sanayi ve Ticaret, a subsidiary of the Eldorado Gold Corporation. It is spread over an area of 157km² and is estimated to operate for 14 years. The mine has been developed in two phases. The first phase commenced operations in July 2006 and required an investment of $83.4m. The second phase of development was completed in 2007. The mine produced ten million tons (mt) of ore at a cash cost of $329 an ounce (oz) of Au in 2010. The third phase of expansion to increase the production levels by 25% is currently underway. Production is expected to increase to 12.5mt in 2011. Geology and reserves at Kisladag The Kisladag mine is part of many tertiary volcanic complexes located in western Turkey. The volcanic complexes were formed at the base of schist along the northeast part of the Menderes Massif metamorphic rocks. "Kisladag gold mine is located in the Usak province of Turkey." The mine is estimated to contain proven and probable reserves of 10.2 million ounces (Moz) grading at 0.74g/t. Measured and indicated reserves are estimated at 12.1Moz grading at 0.68g/t. Inferred reserves are estimated at 4.3Moz grading at 0.43g/t. Mineralisation of the surrounding area Gold mineralisation occurs in intensely-altered coarse Porphyry-style rocks hosted by a number of latitic intrusive bodies. The majority of the gold is found in sub-volcanic intrusives of quartz-syenite to quartz-monzonite composition and is accompanied with traces of zinc, copper and lead. Higher grade gold mineralisation occurs in 800m wide elliptical shaped porphyritic intrusions. Mining and processing at the Usak province gold mine Drilling and blast mining methods are used to recover ore from the open pit mine. Hitachi hydraulic shovels excavate the ore and load them onto Caterpillar dump trucks and front-end loaders. About ten haul trucks operate at the mine. Heap leaching method is used to process the run-of-mine ore. The mined ore is passed through a three stage crushing system consisting of a gyratory crusher and four cone crushers supplied by Metso Minerals. The crushers reduce the ore to 80% and to a size of 6.3mm for leaching. Crushed ore is then transferred to the heap leach pad through conveyors in 10m lifts. Several portable conveyors and a radial stacker transfer the ore onto the pad. The heap leach pad consists of two liner systems - a layer of low permeability clay soil and a 2mm thick synthetic liner. Leached ore is sent to the carbon adsorption plant (ADR) to recover gold. The ADR plant features two trains of carbon columns containing five columns each. Gold from the leach pad is treated with activated carbon and periodically removed for treatment. The Zadra process consisting of pressure stripping, electro winning and smelting is used to recover gold from the carbon. The final product is a gold bar which can be processed to 99.999% purity. Expansion of the Kisladag gold mine Eldorado initiated a feasibility study to examine the expansion of the mine. Results of the study were announced in August 2011. Eldorado plans to invest $345m to launch phase four expansion of the mine based on the feasibility study. The company expects to recover about 6.2Moz of gold between 2012 and 2026 during this phase. "Eldorado initiated a feasibility study to examine the expansion of the mine." The crushing and screening plant will be expanded by installing a parallel circuit to process the increased production. A new conveyor and stacking system will also be added to carry the mined ore to the leach pad. A second ADR facility is expected to be added. Additional trucks and loading equipment will also be procured. The expansion project will require a supplementary environmental impact assessment which Eldorado plans to submit in the first quarter of 2012. The project is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2013 Products & Services
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