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Argentina
Cerro Vanguardia Mine

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 Location:
107 km NW from Puerto San Julian, Argentina

  Regional Office:
Ruta Nac. N3, Km 2146 Magallanes
Santa Cruz
Argentina
Phone  ...  Subscription required
Fax54-2962-496088
WebsiteWeb
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  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

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Overview

StatusTemporary Suspension
Mine TypeOpen Pit / Underground
Commodities
  • Gold
  • Silver
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Longhole stoping
Processing
  • Heap leach
  • Carbon in leach (CIL)
  • AARL elution
  • Merrill–Crowe
  • Cyanide (reagent)
Mine Life15 years (as of Jan 1, 2015)
Latest NewsAngloGold Ashanti Provides Update on Argentina Operations     November 10, 2020


Owners & OPERATOR

Source:
CompanyInterestOwnership
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. 92.5 % Indirect
Cerro Vanguardia S.A. (operator) 100 % Direct
Cerro Vanguardia, in which AngloGold Ashanti has a 92.5% stake, is the company’s sole operation in Argentina. Fomicruz(Fomento Minero de Santa Cruz S.E.), a state company operating in the province of Santa Cruz, owns the remaining 7.5%.

Deposit Type

  • Epithermal
  • Vein / narrow vein


Summary:

Cerro Vanguardia is located in the core of the 60,000km2 Deseado Massif, one of the most extensive volcanic complexes in southern Patagonia, Argentina. The Deseado Massif is an extensive rhyolite province of Middle to Upper Jurassic age deposited over Paleozoic low-grade metamorphic basement rocks. These rocks are exposed in erosional windows through overlying Cretaceous sediments and Tertiary to Quaternary basalts. The orebodies comprise a series of epithermal vein deposits (low-sulphidation deposit) containing gold and large quantities of silver, produced as a by-product.

The mineralisation is concentrated in steeply dipping quartz veins that cut the flat-lying ignimbrites and volcaniclastic rocks. The Cerro Vanguardia district contains around 100 gold and silver-bearing epithermal veins for a cumulative exposed vein strike extension of more than 240km. Fifty-seven veins are currently known to contain economic gold and silver mineralisation.

All veins at Cerro Vanguardia consist mainly of quartz and adularia containing minor electrum, native gold, silver sulphides and native silver as fine-grained disseminations. Vein textures are mainly characterised by colloform-crustiform banding, pseudomorphic quartzlattice textures, massive-to-vuggy quartz veins and vein breccias. 40Ar/39Ar dating on adularia from the Osvaldo Diez vein yielded ages of 153.4 ±1.46Ma, 152.9 ±2.75Ma and 155.1 ±3.0Ma, while the age of the thick sequence of ignimbrites hosting the veins has been dated between 166 to 150Ma.

The Middle to Upper Jurassic ignimbrites and volcanic rocks from Chon Aike formation hosts a low-sulphidation epithermal type gold and silver deposit. The thickness of the ignimbrite sequence is estimated to have exceeded 1,000m, but some lateral variations have been identified across the district. Epithermal Au-Ag bearing structures cut across all Jurassic rocks in the stratigraphy. The two main ignimbrite units, Masiva-Lajosa and Granosa, host the majority of mineralised veins. The Masiva-Lajosa ignimbrite occurs at the top of the sequence whilst the Granosa ignimbrite occurs towards the bottom. These two ignimbrites are separated by two thinner, polymictic ignimbrite units (Brechosa and Brechosa Base) and a sequence of stratified crystal to ash-rich tuffs (Estratificada unit). The base of the sequence is a mixed unit of stratified ignimbrite intercalated with fine-grained tuffs (Estratificada Inferior ignimbrite).


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Longhole stoping


Summary:

Cerro Vanguardia uses conventional open pit mining with a doubled bench height of 20m and in the underground, longhole stoping. Open pit mining is distributed between multiple operating pits, typically three to five at any one time, depending on the plant feed requirements. Currently, there are four underground mines which are operated at same time, located at Fortuna, Osvaldo 8, Verónica and Zorro veins. Two more are in development (Liliana and Serena). The underground workings, which began production in 2010, account for around 30% of total production, a percentage that will increase in the next few years. Low-grade material is stockpiled and processed as heap-leaching.


Crushing and Grinding


Processing

  • Heap leach
  • Carbon in leach (CIL)
  • AARL elution
  • Merrill–Crowe
  • Cyanide (reagent)

Source: Subscription required

Summary:

The Cerro Vanguardia mineral processing plant has a capacity of 3129 tonnes per day. The process involves the following steps:
- Three stages of crushing;
- Stockpiling and blending;
- Grinding in a ball mill, with cyanide addition;
- Cyanide leaching;
- Washing and thickening;
- Leach solution clarification and precipitation or gold and silver using zinc powder (Merill Crowe process);
- Smelting to form metal doré;
- Carbon in leach (CIL);
- Heap leaching;
- Elution using the Anglo American system;
- Cyanide recovery using volatilization;
- SO2 cyanide destruction to around 30 ppm CN (WAD);
- Deposition of tailings in a tailings dam.

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter201920182017201620152014
Gold Head Grade, g/t 4.776.497.57.456.886.08

Production:

CommodityUnits201920182017201620152014
Gold koz  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required306304300266
Silver M oz  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics201920182017201620152014
Tonnes milled  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required3.1 Mt3.3 Mt3.2 Mt
Daily processing capacity  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required3,000 t3,000 t
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Reserves at December 31, 2019:

CategoryTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven & Probable 12.16 Mt Gold 1.97 g/t 0.77 M oz
Proven & Probable 12.16 Mt Silver 47.99 g/t 18.76 M oz
Total Resource 34.13 Mt Gold 2.56 g/t 2.81 M oz
Total Resource 34.13 Mt Silver 69.15 g/t 75.89 M oz

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits201920182017201620152014
Total cash costs Gold USD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required 522 / oz 563 / oz 625 / oz 692 / oz
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold USD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required 772 / oz 773 / oz 873 / oz 938 / oz
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Financials:

Units201920182017201620152014
Capital expenditures M USD  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required  ......  Subscription required 67   58.3  
Subscription required - Subscription is required


Heavy Mobile Equipment:

Mine Management:

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Jun 6, 2019
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 26, 2020
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 26, 2020
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 26, 2020
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

Staff:

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
Subscription required Subscription required Subscription required 2019
Subscription required Subscription required Subscription required 2018
Subscription required Subscription required Subscription required 2017
Subscription required Subscription required Subscription required 2016
Subscription required Subscription required Subscription required 2015
Subscription required Subscription required Subscription required 2014

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2019
................................... Subscription required 2018
Annual Report 2017
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2017
Annual Report 2016
Corporate Presentation 2016
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2016
Fact Sheet 2015
Other 2015
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2015
Subscription required - Subscription is required.

News:

NewsDate
AngloGold Ashanti Provides Update on Argentina Operations November 10, 2020

Aerial view:

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