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Tanzania

Buzwagi Mine

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusClosing / Closed
Commodities
  • Gold
  • Copper
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start... Lock
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotBuzwagi mine was an economic powerhouse for Tanzania’s Shinyanga region for nearly 15 years, with the mine officially closing in July 2022.

Since then, Barrick has been attending to Buzwagi’s environmental rehabilitation, while also advancing plans to transform the closed mine into a Special Economic Zone, replacing the mine as the region’s economic driver.

As of January 2024 Buzwagi rehabilitation is ongoing:
- Tailings Storage Facility rehabilitation 90% complete with strict quality assurance/quality control program;
- Process plant dismantling is underway;
- Environmental monitoring and inspections are ongoing with no material issues raised.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Government of Tanzania 16 % Indirect
Barrick Gold Corp. 84 % Indirect
Twiga Minerals Corporation Ltd. (operator) 100 % Direct
On September 17, 2019, Barrick acquired all of the Acacia Mining plc., and Acacia became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Barrick called Barrick TZ Limited.

On January 24, 2020, Barrick announced that the Company had ratified the creation of Twiga Minerals Corporation, the operating company formed to manage the Tanzania mines. Effective January 1, 2020, the GoT received a free carried shareholding of 16% in each of Barrick’s Tanzanian mines (Bulyanhulu, Buzwagi and North Mara).

Deposit type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Porphyry

Summary:

Buzwagi is shear-hosted quartz-veined deposit hosted in porphyritic granite. It is found in Nzega belt in the lower portion of the Nyanzian system. This belt is composed of basalt and intermediate volcanic intruded by granitoid masses which is dominated by deep-seated structure.

The granite that hosts the majority (85%) of the Buzwagi deposit is a medium to coarse feldspar granite with zone orthoclase crystals up to 4cm. This is predominantly underlain by medium- to coarse-grained granite intruding mafic flow and pillow flow basalts, within which there are two other distinctive units, including a tonalite silt-like body, which is occasionally mineralised with quartz veining, sericite alteration and sulphide mineralisation. Rock units dip to the east at c 60° in the southern portion of the lease area and 65-75° in the northern portion.

Several faults traverse the Buzwagi area. The most significant orientation of faulting is northwestsouth-east, parallel or sub-parallel to the Nzega shear (and probably related to it).

The Buzwagi deposit is hosted within or near a north-south brittle-fracture shear corridor that is up to 450m wide and includes two ore types: shear-hosted, porphyry-hosted.

As such, Buzwagi has been separated into 12 structural domains, within which mineralisation is segregated.

Domain 1 (which accounts for up to 50% of Buzwagi’s in-situ gold) is up to 1,000m long and 30m wide (subject to pinching and swelling), with a consistent gold grade (averaging 2.69g/t) along its entire strike length. The gold mineralisation in this domain is associated with quartz veins and/or quartz stockwork, reflecting dilatant zones within the north-south structural corridor. By contrast, mineralisation in Domain 6 extends over a wider area than Domain 1 (>30m) and is characterised by more stockwork and less shearing. All other mineralised domains are similar to Domain 6, except that they are generally less than 10m wide. The gold mineralisation in all domains plunges 30° to the south.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

With the end of mining at Buzwagi in the third quarter of 2021, as previously reported, Barrick has ceased to include production or non-GAAP cost metrics for Buzwagi from October 1, 2021 onwards.
CommodityProductUnits2021202020192018201720162015
Gold Metal in doré koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe115145
Copper Metal in concentrate k lbs 8,9919,8478,672

Operational metrics

Metrics2021202020192018201720162015
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe3,422 kt4,526 kt4,256 kt4,404 kt4,085 kt
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe4.4 Mt4.4 Mt
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe45 kt391 kt9,309 kt5,317 kt5,658 kt
Waste  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe59 kt
Total tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe105 kt479 kt15,368 kt21,585 kt24,989 kt
Daily processing capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe12,000 t12,000 t12,000 t
Stripping / waste ratio  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe2

Production Costs

CommodityUnits20212020201920182017
Cash costs (sold) Gold USD 906 / oz **   594 / oz **  
Total cash costs Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,166 / oz  
Total cash costs Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,156 / oz **  
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,188 / oz  
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,178 / oz **  
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold USD 977 / oz **   667 / oz **  
All-in costs Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,188 / oz  
All-in costs Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 1,178 / oz **  
** Net of By-Product.

Operating Costs

Currency202120202019
OP mining costs ($/t mined) USD 8.32  
Processing costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
G&A ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Financials

Units2021202020182017
Capital expenditures M USD  ....  Subscribe -2.2   2.4  
Sustaining costs M USD  ....  Subscribe 3.5   4.3  
Revenue M USD  ....  Subscribe 186.8   206.3  
EBIT M USD 43.2   86  
EBITDA M USD 45.7   90.3  

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNamePhoneProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ........... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 27, 2024

Aerial view:

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