With feasibility studies completed at Eldorado’s Kisladag gold project in western Turkey, the company is moving forward with plans to mine five million tons of ore per annum in the next four years.
The estimated capital costs for construction and sustaining the operations at Kisladag over the life of the mine are estimated to be $3.82 per ton of ore and $152 per ounce of gold produced. Expansion capital will be expended in years four and five to provide for increasing production in Phase II.
The Kisladag Project has been planned as a conventional open pit, heap leach gold mine, constructed and operated in two successive phases. Annual ore production will increase to 7.5 million tons per annum in year five, and to 10 million per annum the following year, remaining at that level until the end of mine life.
Ore will be extracted conventionally from the open pit using drilling and blasting with truck haulage to a primary gyratory crusher located adjacent to the pit. Waste rock will be hauled to a dump area 1.5 kilometers south west of the pit. A contractor will be used for mining during Phase I allowing deferred purchase of the mining equipment to correspond with increasing production in Phase II.
An owner operated fleet, consisting of 18 cubic meters Cat 994 wheel loaders and 150 ton Cat 985 haul trucks, will be introduced in year four to take over production beginning in year five. Maximum annual material movement of 24.5 meters will occur in year seven.
Situated on the western edge of the Anatolian plateau 200 kilometers inland from the western port city of Izmir, the Kisladag Project is well serviced by national road and rail services. A 30 kilometer dedicated 10 MVA power supply will be installed from the city of Usak to a sub station adjacent to the site. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
