Lundin Receives Approval for Fruta del Norte EIS


The Las Peñas worker camp at Lundin’s Fruta del Norte project in Ecuador. (Photo Lundin Gold)
Lundin Gold reported in mid-October that the government of Ecuador approved the environmental impact study (EIS) for Lundin’s underground Fruta del Norte gold-silver project in southeast Ecuador. Early works field investigations for mine development have been completed, with the results of more than 2,000 meters (m) of geotechnical drilling, supporting the advance of designs for the mine portals, twin declines and north ventilation raise.

Lundin also reported it has awarded a services contract to G Mining Services. Lundin and G Mining will form an integrated project team to manage all aspects of the project, including optimization of all areas of the project design and execution plan, basic engineering, detailed engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning. Other contracts have been awarded to Ausenco Services Canada for completion of plant layout optimization and basic and detailed engineering for the process plant and surface facilities, to Klohn Crippen Berger for surface geotechnical design and associated field investigations, to NCL Ingenieria y Construccion S.A. for underground mine design, to SRK Consulting for mine geotechnical services, and to Alan Auld Group for mine portal and soft tunneling design services.

The Fruta del Norte feasibility study supports development of an underground mine producing an average of 340,000 oz/y of gold over a mine life of 13 years. The project has current mineral reserves totaling 4.82 million oz of gold and 6.34 million oz of silver in 15.5 million mt, grading 9.67 g/mt gold and 12.7 g/mt silver. Life-of-mine production is estimated at approximately 4.4 million oz of gold and 5.2 million oz of silver, based on average gold recovery of 91.7% and average silver recovery of 81.5%.

Life-of-mine total cash costs of production are estimated at $553/oz, and all-in sustaining cash costs are estimated at $623/oz of gold, placing the project in the lowest-cash-cost quartile among the world’s gold mines.

Project capital cost is estimated at $669 million, including contingency. Start of construction is targeted for mid-2017.

As featured in Womp 2016 Vol 11 - www.womp-int.com