Overview
Stage | Permitting |
Mine Type | Open Pit |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
|
Processing |
- Heap leach
- Carbon in column (CIC)
- Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
- Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
- Cyanide (reagent)
|
Mine Life | 10 years (as of Jan 1, 2016) |
Newmont continues to work cooperatively with the Yukon Government, Canada and First Nations to progress development of the Coffee Mine Project. Newmont’s Coffee Mine Project is a proposed open-pit and heap leach gold development project located in west-central Yukon, and it currently going through the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board’s screening process. |
Latest News | Goldcorp Achieves Significant Project Milestones September 5, 2018 |
Deposit Type
- Orogenic
- Breccia pipe / Stockwork
- Vein / narrow vein
- Hydrothermal
Summary:
Coffee is interpreted to represent a shallow-level (epizonal) structurally controlled orogenic gold deposit (Buitenhuis et al., 2015; Allan et al., 2013). Mineralization textures are described below for the four deposits which comprise the Coffee resources and reserves, namely Supremo, Latte, Double Double, and Kona.
Supremo.
Narrow gold-bearing brittle fault structures with gold hosted in intense fracture zones, immature clast supported breccia and in zones of most intense deformation matrixsupported breccia. Mineralization commonly on the margin of and within dacite dykes which intruded along the fracture zones premineralization. Gold mineralization and accompanying quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration associated with later reactivation of structures. Complete oxidation up to 250m below surface.
Latte.
Gold is hosted in zones of brecciation and strong fracturing as well as areas with pervasive sericite alteration and strongly disseminated sulphides. Some high-grade zones associated with quartz vein breccias. Dolomite-illite/sericite-arsenian pyrite sulphidizes foliaform biotite laths. Potential remobilization of gold to other structures. Complete oxidation up to 75m below surface.
Double Double.
Narrow gold-bearing brittle structures hosted in matrix-supported breccia including dacite porphyry fragment breccia. Anastomosing quartz vein networks and microbreccia associated with high-grade. Local intense silicification and strong disseminated sulphide mineralization. Complete oxidation up to 350m below surface.
Kona.
Gold hosted in quartz-sericite altered granite. Iron oxides after disseminated pyrite, pyrite veinlets, stockworks and sooty-pyrite rich shear zones.
Summary:
The Coffee Gold Project comprises the Latte, Double Double, Supremo and Kona pits which are planned to be extracted by open pit shovel and truck mining methods.
Mining of the deposit is planned to produce a total of 46.4 Mt of heap leach feed and 265 Mt of waste (at a 5.7:1 overall strip ratio) over a nine and a half year mine production life (including one year of preproduction). The current life of mine (LOM) plan focuses on achieving consistent heap leach production rates, and mining of higher value material early in the production schedule, as well as balancing grade and strip ratios.
Flow Sheet:
Processing
- Heap leach
- Carbon in column (CIC)
- Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
- Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
- Cyanide (reagent)
Flow Sheet:
Summary:
The gold recovery process was designed on the basis of leaching 5.0 Mt of ore per year with an average gold head grade of 1.45 g/t at an overall gold recovery of 86.3%.
The two-stage crushing plant will operate at a nominal 18,182 t/d throughput, 275 days per year. During the coldest part of the year (January through March) crushing and heap leach pad loading activities will be suspended. The process plant, located near to and down-gradient from the heap leach facility HLF to minimize the pumping and pipeline requirements for pregnant and barren solutions, will operate 365 days per year. The pregnant solution will flow to the plant at a nominal rate of 455 m3 /h and a design flowrate of 600 m3/h. The plant is designed to process 5 t of carbon per day using an absorption, desorption and refining process to extract gold from the pregnant solution to produce the gold doré.
The gold ore processing facilities will include the following unit operations:
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Recoveries & Grades:
Commodity | Parameter | Avg. LOM |
Gold
|
Recovery Rate, %
| 86.3 |
Gold
|
Head Grade, g/t
| 1.45 |
Projected Production:
Commodity | Units | Avg. Annual | LOM |
Gold
|
koz
| 202 | 1,858 |
Operational Metrics:
Metrics | |
Stripping / waste ratio
| 5.72 * |
Waste tonnes, LOM
| 265,361 kt * |
Ore tonnes mined, LOM
| 46,356 kt * |
Total tonnes mined, LOM
| 311,717 kt * |
Tonnes milled, LOM
| 46,356 kt * |
* According to 2016 study.
Reserves at December 31, 2020:
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Measured
|
1000 kt
|
Gold
|
2.01 g/t
|
60 koz
|
Indicated
|
54,500 kt
|
Gold
|
1.19 g/t
|
2,080 koz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
55,500 kt
|
Gold
|
1.2 g/t
|
2,140 koz
|
Inferred
|
6,800 kt
|
Gold
|
1.07 g/t
|
230 koz
|
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