Exploration drilling at the Ag?i Dag?i project site.
EIA Approved for Alamos Gold’s Aği Daği Project
Alamos Gold reported that Turkey’s
Ministry of the Environment and
Urbanization has issued a Positive
Decision Certificate for the company’s
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of
its Aği Daği gold project on the Biga
peninsula in northwest Turkey. The company continues work on amending the EIA for
its Kirazli project to include an assessment
of the potential cumulative impacts of proposed projects in the region. The projects
are located about 25 km apart.
A positive, combined pre-feasibility
study (PFS) on the Aği Daği and Kirazli
projects was completed in 2012, with both
projects contemplated as stand-alone
open-pit, heap-leach operations. Under the
PFS, Kirazli is expected to produce an
average of 99,000 oz/y of gold at total cash
costs of $515/oz, inclusive of royalty, over
a five-year mine life. Ağı Dağı is expected
to produce an average of 143,000 oz/y of
gold at total cash costs of $611/oz, inclusive of royalty, over a seven-year mine life.
Mining at both deposits will be by openpit methods, utilizing a traditional drill,
blast, load, and haul sequence to deliver ore
to the primary crusher and waste to waste
dumps, pit backfill, and/or as heap-leach
pad construction fill. The PFS assumes that
a contract miner will be hired to provide
mine equipment and operating personnel
during pre-production and throughout the
life-of-mine of the operations.
Processing will include heap leaching of
crushed ore with dilute cyanide solutions
and precious metals production in carbon
adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR) plants
to produce doré bars. Wherever practical,
identical equipment will be used at the two
operations to minimize spare parts handling
and inventories and to facilitate major
equipment operations and maintenance.
Alamos acquired the Aği Daği and
Kirazli projects on January 6, 2010, from
Teck and Fronteer Development for total
consideration of approximately $90 million.
As featured in Womp 2014 Vol 09 - www.womp-int.com