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Dominican Republic
Pueblo Viejo Mine

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 Location:
25 km E from Bonao, Dominican Republic

  Regional Office:
Novo-Centro Piso 16 Av. Lope de Vega No. 29
Santo Domingo
Dominican Republic
Phone+1 809 338-7878
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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
  • Silver
  • Copper
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start2012
Mine Life2028
Pueblo Viejo is one of the largest gold mines in the world. It consists of two open pits, Moore and Monte Negro.

Based on the existing tailings facility and the completion of the process plant expansion, mining activity at Pueblo Viejo of fresh ore can continue until 2028.

The Pueblo Viejo plant expansion and mine life extension project is designed to increase throughput to 14 million tonnes per annum, allowing the mine to maintain average annual gold production of approximately 800,000 ounces after 2022 (100% basis), and extend the life of mine beyond the 2040s with the incorporation of a new tailings storage facility.

Process plant expansion scheduled for completion by end of 2022.
The new tailings storage facility in the permitting phase. Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) application for additional tailings storage capacity to be filed in Q3 2022. The new tailings storage facility (TSF) would enable operations at Pueblo Viejo to continue beyond 2040.


Owners

Source: p. 84
CompanyInterestOwnership
Newmont Corp. 40 % Indirect
Barrick Gold Corp. 60 % Indirect
Pueblo Viejo Dominicana Corp. (operator) 100 % Direct
Pueblo Viejo Dominicana Corporation (PVDC) holds 100% of the mineral rights to the Pueblo Viejo deposit.
Pueblo Viejo is operated by the Pueblo Viejo Dominicana Corporation — a joint venture between Barrick Gold Corp. (60%) and Newmont Corp. (40%).

Contractors



Deposit Type

  • Epithermal
  • Vein / narrow vein

Source: Source p.68, 60-61

Summary:

Pueblo Viejo is a Cretaceous high sulphidation epithermal gold, silver, copper and zinc deposit. High sulphidation deposits are typically derived from fluids enriched in magmatic volatiles, which have migrated from a deep intrusive body to an epithermal crustal setting, with only limited dilution by groundwater or interaction with host rocks. Major dilatant structures or phreatomagmatic breccia pipes provide conduits for rapid fluid ascent and so facilitate evolution of the characteristic high sulphidation fluid.

The PVDC interpretation is based on geological evidence observed within the Pueblo Viejo deposit and is not a regional interpretation as presented by Sillitoe et al. (2006). However, PVDC believes that uncertainty with respect to the deposits origin has no practical impact on exploration at the levels that may be mined by open pit methods. The areal extent of the deposits has been constrained by drilling and the vertical extents are reasonably well known, although additional drilling is required to define the deepest parts of the deposit.

Metallic mineralization in the deposit areas is predominantly pyrite, with lesser amounts of sphalerite and enargite. Pyrite mineralization occurs as disseminations, layers, replacements, and veins. Sphalerite and enargite mineralization is primarily in veins, but disseminated sphalerite has been noted in core.

Studies have determined that there were three stages of advanced argillic alteration associated with precious metal mineralization:

1. Stage I alteration produced alunite, silica, pyrite, and deposited gold in association with disseminated pyrite.

2. Stage II overprinted Stage I and produced pyrophyllite and an overlying silica cap.

3. Stage III of mineralization occurred when hydro-fracturing of the silica cap produced pyrite- sphalerite-enargite veins with silicified haloes. Syntaxial vein growth preserves evidence for pyrite-enargite-sphalerite-grey-silica paragenesis.

Individual Stage III veins have a mean width of four centimetres and are typically less than 10 cm wide. Exposed at surface, individual veins can be traced vertically over three pit benches (30 m). Veins are typically concentrated in zones that are elongated north-northwest and can be 250 m long, 100 m wide, and 100 m vertical. Stage III veins contain the highest precious and base metal values and are more widely distributed in the upper portions of the deposits.

Veins tend to be parallel and follow a number of local structures that crosscut the deposit. Those structures have a northerly trend at Monte Negro and Moore, with a northwestsoutheast trend also present at Moore.

The most common vein minerals are pyrite, sphalerite, and quartz, with lesser amounts of enargite, barite, and pyrophyllite. Trace amounts of electrum, argentite, colusite, tetrahedritetennantite, geocronite, galena, siderite, and tellurides are also found in veins.

The abundance of pyrite and sphalerite within veins varies across the deposit areas. Veins in the southwest corner of the Monte Negro pit are relatively sphalerite-rich and pyrite-poor when compared to veins elsewhere in the Moore and the Monte Negro deposits. The sphalerite in these veins is darker red in colour, possibly indicating that it is richer in iron. The abundance of dark red sphalerite in these veins may also be indicative of the outer margins of a system of hydrothermal-magmatic mineralized fluids.

Late massive pyrophyllite veins that probably represent the last stage of veining and alteration cut the Stage III veins. All stages of veining are cut by thin, white quartz veins associated with low angle thrusts that post-date mineralization.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader

Source:

Summary:

Pueblo Viejo is a conventional truck and shovel operation with two open pits and a limestone quarry moving an average of 174,000 tonnes per day (tpd) of material including pit re-handle and limestone.

Current mine activity is in the Monte Negro and Moore phases.

Pit dimensions: 2.5km long x 1.5km wide x 300m deep (no backfill) and Typical bench height - 10m.


Crushing and Grinding
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Processing

  • Calcining
  • Carbon re-activation kiln
  • Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
  • Counter current decantation (CCD)
  • Pressure oxidation
  • Carbon in leach (CIL)
  • Elution
  • Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Cyanide (reagent)

Flow Sheet: Source
Source: Source

Summary:

The process plant is designed to process approximately 24,000 tpd of ROM refractory ore. The plant bottleneck is the supply of oxygen. If the ROM feed has a low sulphide content, the plant can process 30,000 tpd. The design basis for the oxygen plant is to provide the oxygen required to oxidize approximately 80 tonnes per hour (tph) of sulphide sulphur. This is equivalent to 1,200 tph of feed containing 6.79% sulphide sulphur, assuming a design factor of 2.2 tonnes O2 per tonne sulphide sulphur. The overall facility consists of the following unit operations:
• Primary crushing;
• SAG mill and ball mill grinding with pebble crushing (SABC circuit);
• Pressure oxidation (POX);
• Hot curing;
• CCD washing;
• Iron precipitation;
• Copper sulphide precipitation and recovery;
• Neutralization;
• Solution cooling;
• Lime boiling for silver enhancement;
• CIL circuit;
• Carbon acid washing, stripping and regeneration;
• Electrowinning (EW);
• Refining;
• Cyanide destruction;
• ARD treatment;
• Limestone crushing, calcining, and lime slaking.

The ore is ground to an optimum size of 80% passing 80 µm to120 µm and oxidized in autoclaves at a temperature of 210°C to 230°C and a pressure of 3,100 kPa to 3,450 kPa for 60 minutes to 75 minutes. The product from each autoclave is discharged to a flash vessel where heat is released, cooling the slurry to approximately 106°C. It then flows by gravity to the hot cure circuit where the slurry temperature is maintained between 100°C and 105°C for 12 hours in order to dissolve the basic ferric sulphate (BFS) that forms during the pressure oxidation process. This process overall temperature will be deliberately lowered in 2018 to approximately 96°C to protect equipment. The resulting BFS dissolution will essentially be the same.

The next step in the process is to separate the base metal rich acidic liquors from the oxidized solids within the slurry. This is accomplished in a three-stage CCD wash thickener circuit to remove more than 99% of the sulphuric acid and the dissolved metal sulphates. The washed thickened slurry is then contacted with steam from one of the autoclave flash vessels to heat the slurry to 95°C ahead of a two-stage lime boil treatment. Adding milk of lime slurry to the oxidized slurry effectively raises the pH to the 10.5 to 10.8 range breaking down the silver jarosites, making it possible to recover the silver minerals in the CIL circuit. Following the lime boil circuit, the slurry is diluted with reclaimed water and cooled to 40°C in cooling towers. The cooled slurry is pumped to the CIL circuit.

The addition of lime to the lime boil circuit provides sufficient protective alkalinity in the CIL circuit. No further addition of lime is required in this circuit. In the CIL circuit, cyanide is added to solubilize the gold and silver into solution which is contacted with activated carbon to adsorb the gold and silver cyanide complexes. Retention time in this circuit varies from 18 hours to 22 hours, depending on the processing rate.

The acidic liquor overflow from CCD thickener #1 is sent to the autoclave plant to quench flash steam. The quench vessel underflow is treated with limestone in the iron precipitation circuit to remove ferric iron. From there, the overflow from the iron precipitation thickener is forwarded to the hydrogen sulphide (H2S) precipitation plant to recover the copper. H2S gas is added to the solution to precipitate the copper as CuS. The precipitate is thickened and filtered to produce market grade copper concentrate. Neutralizing the thickener overflow solution is accomplished first with limestone and then with the introduction of slaked lime in the HDS circuit where most of the remaining metal sulphates are precipitated. After neutralization, the slurry is dewatered in a high rate thickener. The thickener underflow (sludge) is pumped to the tailings pond while the overflow is cooled and recycled to the process water tank for redistribution, including use as wash water in the CCD circuit.

Loaded carbon from the CIL circuit is forwarded to the refinery for acid washing and stripping. The resulting pregnant strip solution proceeds to the EW circuit for gold and silver recovery while the barren carbon travels to the reactivation kiln. A combined gold and silver sludge from the EW cells is filtered, dried, retorted to remove the mercury from the sludge, and smelted to produce bullion bars. The reactivated carbon is returned to the CIL circuit.

The tailings from the CIL circuit flow by gravity across the carbon safety screens and are pumped to the cyanide destruction circuit. The conventional SO2/air process reduces the cyanide content of the CIL tailings to less than 5 mg/L cyanide. The detoxified slurry is mixed with the HDS and pumped to the TSF.

The Pueblo Viejo plant expansion and mine life extension project is designed to increase throughput to 14 million tonnes per annum, allowing the mine to maintain average annual gold production of approximately 800,000 ounces after 2022 (100% basis), and extend the life of mine beyond the 2040s with the incorporation of a new tailings storage facility. The project has the potential to convert approximately 9 million ounces of measured and indicated resources to proven and probable reserves (100% basis).

Process plant expansion scheduled for completion by end of 2022. The new tailings storage facility is in the permitting phase.

The process plant expansion flowsheet includes an additional primary crusher, coarse ore stockpile and ore reclaim delivering to a new single stage semi-autogenous (SAG) mill, and a new flotation circuit that will concentrate the bulk of the sulfide ore prior to oxidation. The concentrate will be blended with fresh milled ore to feed the modified autoclave circuit, which will have additional oxygen supplied from a new 3,000-tonnes-per-day facility. The existing autoclaves will be upgraded to increase the sulfur processing capacity of each autoclave through additional high-pressure cooling water and recycle flash capability using additional slurry pumping and thickening.

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter2021202020192018201720162015
Gold Recovery Rate, % 88898989929187
Gold Head Grade, g/t 3.183.612.764.044.575.284.94
Silver Recovery Rate, % 74.663.434
Copper Recovery Rate, % 11.620.57.48
Copper Concentrate Grade, % 63.358.256.6
Silver Head Grade, g/t 34

Production:

CommodityProductUnits2022202120202019201820172016
Gold Metal in doré koz 660-730 ^8149039839681,0831,168
Silver Metal in doré koz 4,4573,385
Copper Metal in concentrate lbs 2,357,4613,111,296
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics202120202019201820172016
Total tonnes mined 41,145 kt33,770 kt41,220 kt40,105 kt39,050 kt38,795 kt
Ore tonnes mined 13,282 kt10,245 kt13,475 kt15,697 kt22,523 kt18,630 kt
Waste 27,863 kt23,525 kt27,745 kt24,408 kt16,527 kt20,165 kt
Stripping / waste ratio 2.1 2.3 2.06 1.55 0.73 1.1
Tonnes processed 9,110 kt8,828 kt8,607 kt8,347 kt7,985 kt7,545 kt
Daily processing rate 21,875 t20,616 t
Daily mining rate 106 kt

Reserves at December 31, 2021:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven 13 Mt Gold 2.2 g/t 0.88 M oz
Proven 13 Mt Silver 11.18 g/t 4.5 M oz
Probable 113 Mt Gold 2.22 g/t 8.2 M oz
Probable 113 Mt Silver 14.85 g/t 55 M oz
Proven & Probable 127 Mt Gold 2.22 g/t 9 M oz
Proven & Probable 127 Mt Silver 14.49 g/t 58 M oz
Measured 105 Mt Gold 2.03 g/t 6.83 M oz
Measured 105 Mt Silver 11.47 g/t 38 M oz
Indicated 250 Mt Gold 2.04 g/t 17 M oz
Indicated 250 Mt Silver 12.63 g/t 105 M oz
Inferred 63 Mt Gold 1.7 g/t 3.5 M oz
Inferred 63 Mt Silver 9 g/t 18 M oz

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits202220212020201920182017
Cash costs Gold USD 475 / oz   475 / oz  
Cash costs Gold USD 405 / oz†   405 / oz†  
Total cash costs Gold USD 610 / oz   568 / oz   536 / oz  
Total cash costs Gold USD 700 / oz ^†   541 / oz†   504 / oz†   471 / oz†  
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold USD 814 / oz   724 / oz   657 / oz   595 / oz   595 / oz  
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold USD 950 / oz ^†   745 / oz†   660 / oz†   592 / oz†   525 / oz†   525 / oz†  
All-in costs Gold USD 1,247 / oz   825 / oz   665 / oz   595 / oz   595 / oz  
All-in costs Gold USD 1,178 / oz†   761 / oz†   600 / oz†   525 / oz†   525 / oz†  
^ Guidance / Forecast.
† Net of By-Product.

Operating Costs:

Units2021202020192018201720162015
OP mining costs ($/t mined) USD 2.762.882.793.052.92.822.69
Processing costs ($/t milled) USD 37.639.343.145.84137.950.6
G&A ($/t milled) USD 6.865.847.539.317.53

Financials:

Units202120202019201820172016
Sustaining costs M USD 160  132  107  
Capital expenditures M USD 518  223  107   145   115   101  
Revenue M USD 1,514  1,613  1,409   1,336   1,419   1,532  
Operating Income M USD 759  873  676   579   671   901  
After-tax Income M USD 361  418  708   206   293   810  
EBITDA M USD 978  1,073  870   762   897   1,035  



Heavy Mobile Equipment as of December 31, 2017:
HME TypeModelQuantity
Dozer Caterpillar 834H 2
Dozer Caterpillar 854K 2
Dozer (crawler) Caterpillar D10T 5
Dozer (crawler) Caterpillar D9T 2
Drill Sandvik D45KS 2
Drill Sandvik D55SP 3
Drill Sandvik DX780 2
Drill Schramm T450GT 1
Excavator Caterpillar 349D 1
Excavator Hitachi EX1200 1
Excavator Caterpillar 336 3
Grader Caterpillar 16M 4
Loader Caterpillar 962 2
Loader Caterpillar 938 1
Loader (FEL) Caterpillar 994F 3
Shovel (hydraulic) Hitachi EX3600 2
Truck (haul) Caterpillar 789C 17
Truck (haul) Caterpillar 789D 17
Truck (water) Caterpillar 777F 2

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
Chief Metallurgist Luis Cabral Martínez LinkedIn Sep 19, 2022
Country Manager Juana Barceló LinkedIn Sep 19, 2022
Deputy General Manager Isaac Luciano LinkedIn Sep 19, 2022
Environmental Superintendent Yelisa Cuevas Díaz LinkedIn Sep 19, 2022
Fixed Plant Maintenance Superintendent José Gabriel Terrero Alburquerque LinkedIn Sep 19, 2022
Health & Safety Manager Luis Garcia LinkedIn Sep 19, 2022
Maintenance Planner Christofher Castillo LinkedIn Sep 19, 2022
Mining Manager José Recio Herrera LinkedIn Sep 19, 2022
Mining Superintendent Soraya Madera LinkedIn Sep 19, 2022

Staff:

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
2,600 2,500 5,100 2021
2,300 2,200 4,500 2017

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Annual Information Form 2021
Annual Report 2021
Quarterly Report 2021
Annual Report 2020
Corporate Presentation 2020
Other 2020
Annual Report 2019
Fact Sheet 2019
Other 2019
Press Release 2019
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2019
Annual Report 2018
Management Discussion & Analysis 2018
Other 2018
Press Release 2018
Quarterly Report 2018
Technical Report 2018
Annual Report 2017
Annual Report 2017
Operations & Technical Update 2017
Annual Report 2016
Annual Report 2016
Corporate Presentation 2016
Management Discussion & Analysis 2016
Other 2016
Press Release 2016
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2016
Annual Report 2015
Annual Report 2015
Quarterly Report 2015
Annual Report 2014
Annual Report 2014
Corporate Presentation 2013
Technical Report 2008

Aerial view:

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