Mining Intelligence and News
Spain

Salave Project

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Categories

Overview

Mine TypeUnderground
StagePreliminary Economic Assessment
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Vertical Crater Retreat
  • Sub-level stoping
Backfill type ... Lock
Mine Life... Lock

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Black Dragon Gold Corp. 100 % Indirect
BDG owns 100% of the Salave gold deposit through its wholly owned Spanish subsidiary, Exploraciones Mineras del Cantábrico SL (EMC).

Deposit type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Intrusion related

Summary:

Gold mineralisation at Salave is related to hydrothermal alteration of the host granodiorite. The highest gold grades are associated with intense albite-sericite alteration with fine-grained arsenopyrite, commonly disseminated as fine needles, pyrite and stibnite. Destruction of the original texture is a major feature of the most intensively altered and mineralised granodiorite. Quartz veins, and quartz-carbonate molybdenite-bearing veins present in the deposit do not contain gold and represent a separate mineralising event.

BDG consider the Salave deposit to be an intrusive related gold deposit with similarities to other intrusions related gold deposit models including Fort Knox, Pogo and Donlin Creek in Alaska and Telfer and Boddington in Western Australia.

The Salave gold deposit is hosted mainly by the strongly altered Salave granodiorite at its western boundary, close to the contact with the Los Cabos sedimentary sequence.

Most of the gold mineralisation has been delineated within an area 400 m wide, 500 m long and 350 m deep. Gold mineralisation occurs in a series of stacked, north-to-northwest trending, shallowly southwest dipping irregular lenses related to faults and fracture zones that are parallel to the contact of the intrusive and metasedimentary rocks. The faults and fracture zones appear to be related to one or more vertical structures some of which contain high-grade gold mineralisation. These structures may play an important role as conduits and opening shallow dipping structures with subsequent deposition of hydrothermal solutions, particularly at the contact with the metasediments.

Previous explorers noted that the attitude of the sheeted alteration-mineralisation zones mirrors that of the overlying metasedimentary rocks. In places, these lenses may be sub-horizontal. The dimensions of the individual mineralised zones range from 50 m to 300 m in length, 10 m to 150 m in width, and 5 m to 60 m in thickness, with an average thickness in the order of 20 m. Narrow zones of gold mineralisation are also present within the Los Cabos metasedimentary rocks, possibly reflecting later reactivation and leakage.

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

CommodityProductUnitsAvg. AnnualLOM
Gold Concentrate kt 560
Gold Metal in concentrate koz 791,108

Operational metrics

Metrics
Daily ore mining rate 2,000 t *
Daily milling rate 2,000 t *
Annual ore mining rate 656.3 kt *
Annual milling capacity 0.7 Mt *
Ore tonnes mined, LOM 9.19 Mt *
Tonnes milled, LOM 9.19 Mt *
* According to 2019 study.

Production Costs

CommodityUnitsAverage
Cash costs Gold USD 729.15 / oz *  
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold USD 752.8 / oz *  
Assumed price Gold USD 1,250 / oz *  
* According to 2019 study / presentation.

Operating Costs

Currency2019
OP mining costs ($/t milled) USD 40.7 *  
Processing costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
G&A ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
Total operating costs ($/t milled) USD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2019 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
Initial CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Sustaining CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Total CapEx $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 5% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
After-tax NPV @ 5% $M USD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
After-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
After-tax payback period, years  ......  Subscribe

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNamePhoneProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required ........... Subscription required Subscription required Jan 27, 2023

Aerial view:

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