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Ghana
Damang Mine

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 Location:
65 km N from Takoradi, Ghana

  Regional Office:
No 7 Dr Amilcar Cabral Road Airport Residential
Accra
Ghana
Phone+233-302-770-189
Fax+233-302-770-187
EmailEmail
WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Fleet
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Processing
  • Gravity separation
  • Inline Leach Reactor (ILR)
  • Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
  • Carbon in leach (CIL)
  • Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Cyanide (reagent)
Mine Life6 years (as of Jan 1, 2019)


Owners

Source: p. 95, 218
CompanyInterestOwnership
Government of Ghana 10 % Indirect
Gold Fields Ltd. 90 % Indirect
Gold Fields Limited owns 90% of the issued shares of Abosso Goldfields Ltd. (AGL), with the Ghanaian government owning the remaining 10% free carried interest.

Deposit Type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Hydrothermal
  • Paleoplacer

Source: Source p.96

Summary:

The Damang ore body is hosted by a north to north-easterly plunging antiform, developed within Tarkwaian sediments. The main Damang pit is located close to the closure of the antiform, and all other known mineralisation is located on the east and west limbs of the Damang anticline. The mine exploits fresh hydrothermal and oxide mineralisation in addition to Witwatersrand-style, palaeoplacer mineralisation.

Palaeoplacer mineralisation.
There are three gold-bearing conglomerate horizons recognised on the western limb of the Damang anticline. From footwall to hangingwall, these are known as the Star/Composite, Malta/Breccia and Gulder Reefs. There are also three gold-bearing conglomerate horizons recognised on the eastern limb, namely the Lima, Kwesie-K1 and Kwesie-K2 Reefs. These conglomerate horizons are separated by poorly-mineralised sandstone units.

The reefs are usually characterised by a fining upwards sequence of poorly to moderately sorted, clast-supported polymictic conglomerates. However, local variations are observed where the conglomerate domain is interbedded with fine to coarse grained, poorly sorted sandstones. The Star/Composite, Malta/Breccia and Gulder Reefs on the west limb and the Lima, Kwesie-K1 and Kwesie-K2 Reefs on the east limb of the Damang anticline contain higher gold grades than the poorly mineralised sandstone units, which separate the reefs. The conglomerate reefs may contain between 1.3 and 1.5 g/t gold, and the poorly mineralised sandstone units usually contain between 0.1 and 0.2 g/t gold.

Hydrothermal mineralisation.
Hydrothermal gold mineralisation at Damang occurs in pyrite and pyrrhotite alteration selvages, which are usually less than one metre wide and located immediately adjacent to en-echelon quartz veins. Gold is also associated with accessory vein minerals such as carbonate, muscovite, tourmaline, ilmenite and apatite. These alteration zones are often linked and may result in significant volumes, characterised by intense veining and gold mineralisation.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader

Source: p.110

Summary:

Conventional drill and blast with truck and shovel mining techniques are employed at all open pits. Load-and-haul is carried out by 90 tonne dump trucks and 14 to 20 tonne excavators in backhoe and face shovel configurations. Mining benches are blasted in 9m benches and excavated in 3m flitches. Gold mineralisation is mined selectively to cut-off grades, and segregated into grade ranges to balance the ore production and processing capacities on-site and to maximise cash-flow.

Off-highway trucks haul the ore to the ROM pad and waste to the respective planned dumps. For pits that are further from the ROM Pad, the off-highway trucks haul the ore to interim stockpiles near the pits and a fleet of 30 to 40 tonne trucks reclaim and transport the ore to the RoM Pad.


Crushing and Grinding
Source: Source p.10


Processing

  • Gravity separation
  • Inline Leach Reactor (ILR)
  • Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
  • Carbon in leach (CIL)
  • Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Cyanide (reagent)

Flow Sheet: Source

Summary:

The plant is a conventional two-stage grinding circuit using SAG and ball mill combination, with pebble crusher, gravity concentration and an inline leach reactor, followed by a carbon in-leach recovery process. The average throughput of the plant is currently 13,238 tons per day (tpd), with an overall plant utilisation of 92%.

The purpose of the milling section is to produce blended leach feed with about 80% passing 125 µm. The section consists of a SAG mill (8 metres x 5.1 metres with a power rating of 5.8 MW and a ball mill (6.1 metres x 9 metres) with an identical power rating. Cyanide is added to the feed to the CIL at the trash screen under pan to maximise the gold dissolution.

Gravity gold is collected and treated by the Knelson concentrators followed by an intensive cyanidation using the ILR3000BA. The In-line Leach Reactor (ILR) was commissioned in December 2012.

A scalped stream of approximately a fifth of the cyclone underflow stream (circulating load) is fed to the gravity circuit which comprises 2x KC 48 Knelson gravity concentrators with a capacity of 200 to 400 tph. The balance of the circulating load reports to the ball mill as feed. The purpose of this section is to remove any free gold out of the circuit. The section consists of two vibratory screens, which are fitted with five-millimetre aperture screen panels to the two Knelson concentrators. The feed is introduced to the screen with the oversize reporting back to the ball mill and the undersize material is presented to the Knelson concentrators. The tails from the Knelson concentrators combine with the ball mill discharge and are presented as a feed to the cyclones. The concentrate reports to the ILR, which leaches the gold under pressure and high cyanide concentrations to yield dissolved gold; which in turn is recovered by electro winning in the gold room.

Cyclone overflow is screened to remove trash before reporting to the seven-stage CIL, via the filblast pump, which is fitted with a multimix head for oxygen injection. The cyclone overflow comprises 45% solids and is introduced onto the trash screen (0.8 millimetre apertures) and the undersize is presented as leach feed. At this stage about 30% of the gold is dissolved. Gaseous oxygen and hydrogen peroxide are dosed to CIL tanks 1 and 2, to maintain dissolved oxygen content of 14 ppm and 10 ppm for the first two tanks respectively. The slurry discharging from the last tank is screened on a horizontal linear screen (tailings screen) which is fitted with a screen cloth of 0.8 millimetre aperture. This screen recovers and returns to the CIL circuit any coarse carbon discharged accidentally. Loaded carbon is recovered from the first tank of the adsorption train and transferred to acid washing, elution, and electro winning. Cathodes are washed with high-pressure spray water and the gold sludge is recovered by filtration. The gold sludge filter cake is dried and smelted. Slurry discharging from the last adsorption tank is screened ahead of thickening and tailings disposal.


Deposition of tailings is currently to the Far East TSF (FETSF) which was commissioned in January 2018. The second stage of the embankment lift commenced in November 2019.

The South TSF (STSF), located on the south eastern side of Damang, was used for tailings discharge from original plant commissioning until tailings deposition ceased in March 2002. Since closure, a waste dump has been located on top of part of the STSF, and crop plantations have been established on the remainder of the facility basin area.

The ETSF was constructed as a combined TSF/waste dump, using compacted earth fill and dumped fresh waste rock. The main cross-valley embankments are the north and south embankments. The western side of the facility comprises the Damang open pit and Victoria waste dump while the eastern side is formed by the eastern embankment which links a series of low-lying hills. Closure deposition of tailings into the ETSF was embarked upon during early 2017 until early January 2018 when deposition was ended.

The FETSF is located south of the existing ETSF abutting the ETSF’s South Embankment. The FETSF is planned to be constructed through eight stages. The FETSF has been designed and constructed with a compacted clay liner across the facility basin area and upstream slopes. The TSF has a remaining LoM storage capacity of ~33 Mt (stages two to eight). [2019 Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves Supplement to the Integrated Annual Report]

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter2019201820172016201520142013
Gold Recovery Rate, % 9294.192.291.990.99189.2
Gold Head Grade, g/t 1.511.421.051.181.331.51.4

Production:

CommodityUnits202020192018201720162015
Gold koz 215 ^208181144148168
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré. ^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics201920182017201620152014
Total tonnes mined 34,098 kt45,937 kt39,726 kt18,846 kt21,384 kt19,191 kt
Ore tonnes mined 4,680 kt4,495 kt3,329 kt2,819 kt4,702 kt3,880 kt
Waste 29,418 kt41,442 kt36,397 kt16,027 kt16,682 kt15,310 kt
Tonnes milled 4,645 kt4,205 kt4,590 kt4,268 kt4,295 kt4,044 kt
Stripping / waste ratio 6.29 9.22 10.9 5.68 3.55 3.95
Annual processing capacity 4.5 Mt4.2 Mt

Reserves at December 31, 2019:

CategoryOreTypeTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven Total 8,071 kt Gold 1.17 g/t 304 koz
Probable Total 19,753 kt Gold 1.88 g/t 1,194 koz
Proven & Probable Total 27,824 kt Gold 1.68 g/t 1,499 koz
Measured Total 13,042 kt Gold 1.53 g/t 641 koz
Indicated Total 60,799 kt Gold 2.28 g/t 4,556 koz
Inferred Total 19,962 kt Gold 2.3 g/t 1,479 koz
Total Resource Total 93,803 kt Gold 2.18 g/t 6,576 kg

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits20202019201820172016
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold USD 809 / oz† 813 / oz† 1,027 / oz† 1,254 / oz†
All-in costs Gold USD 1,030 / oz ^† 1,147 / oz† 1,506 / oz† 1,827 / oz† 1,254 / oz†
^ Guidance / Forecast.
† Net of By-Product.

Financials:

Units20202019201820172016201520142013
Capital expenditures (planned) M USD 18  
Sustaining costs M USD 5.8  14  17.2  37.9   16.9   16  
Capital expenditures M USD 76.3  139  132  37.9   16.9   16   50  
Revenue M USD 288.3  229  180.3  183.4   194.8   224.6   216.4  
After-tax Income M USD 25.5  -8.3  20.4  -4.5   -89.3   3.4   -118.3  


Heavy Mobile Equipment as of December 31, 2012:
Source: Source p.8
HME TypeModelQuantity
Backhoe Bucyrus-Erie RH120E 1
Backhoe Bucyrus-Erie RH90Cs 3
Backhoe Liebherr 984 2
Truck (dump) Caterpillar 777F 26

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
Drilling & Blasting Manager Abraham Beni LinkedIn May 30, 2020
General Manager Michiel Van Der Merwe LinkedIn May 30, 2020
Mine Manager Charles Kofi Nti LinkedIn May 30, 2020
Mine Planning Manager John Ankomah LinkedIn May 30, 2020
Mining Manager Samuel Kwesi Takyi LinkedIn May 30, 2020


Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Corporate Presentation 2019
Financial Review 2019
Integrated Report 2019
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2019
Form 20-F 2018
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2018
Form 20-F 2017
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2017
Annual Report 2016
Financial Review 2016
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2016
Financial Review 2015
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2015
Annual Report 2014
Financial Review 2014
Technical Report 2012

Aerial view:

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