Mining Intelligence and News
Australia

Tropicana Mine

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit & Underground
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
  • Sub-level stoping
  • Longhole open stoping
  • Longitudinal open stoping
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SnapshotThe Tropicana Gold Project contains Havana and the now completed Boston Shaker open pits and the Boston Shaker and Tropicana underground operations.

Work associated with the Havana Underground Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) progressed during the year 2023. The PFS is expected to be completed by the December quarter 2023 with the potential to start a main access decline in the second half of calendar year 2024.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Regis Resources Ltd. 30 % Indirect
AngloGold Ashanti plc. 70 % Indirect
AngloGold Ashanti Australia Ltd. (operator) 70 % Direct
Tropicana is held in a Joint Venture agreement between Regis (30%) and AngloGold Ashanti Australia Limited (70%).

Tropicana is managed by joint venture partner AngloGold.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Metamorphic hosted

Summary:

The Tropicana Gold Project area lies east of a northeast trending magnetic feature, interpreted to be the major tectonic suture between the Yilgarn Craton and the Proterozoic Albany-Fraser Orogen that extends over 700km. The gold deposit is hosted in Archaean gneissic metamorphic rocks (ca. 2,640Ma) with cover sequences generally 10 to 30m thick resulting in the mineral deposit not being exposed at surface.

The 5km long strike of gold mineralisation at Tropicana is subdivided into five shear offset zones from north to south – Boston Shaker, Tropicana, Havana, Havana Deeps, and Havana South. The mineralised corridor is ~1.2km wide and up to 1.5km down dip to the current deepest drill intercepts. Within each zone the gold mineralisation trends north to northeast. Gold is concentrated in ~2m to ~50m thick subparallel layers within the ‘favourable horizon’ which comprises quartz-feldspar gneiss units.

Together, the Tropicana, Havana, Havana South and Boston Shaker deposits define a northeast trending mineralised corridor, approximately 1.2km wide and 5km long that has been tested to a vertical depth of more than 1,200m. The Mineral Resource remains open down-dip from the Tropicana, Havana and Boston Shaker deposits and has the potential to be extended to the north and south. Neither the immediate metamorphic host rocks nor the mineralised zones are exposed at surface due to the presence of widespread younger cover sequences.

The Tropicana area is covered by a 10m to 30m thick unconformable cover of Permian and Tertiary sedimentary rocks that have Tertiary lateritic weathering. In some areas the cover sequence also includes Holocene aeolian sands and colluvium.

The Tropicana deposit comprises a mineralised zone up to 50m thick, hosted predominantly in quartzo feldspathic gneiss with a garnet-gneiss dominated hangingwall package. The mineralisation is comprised of subordinate thin (3 to 5m), discontinuous mineralised lenses that typically return intercepts of >0.5g/t gold. The Havana deposit comprises a lower, laterally continuous, higher-grade lode up to 50m thick that is overlain, in the central and southern parts of the pit, by stacked, typically lower-grade and thinner (up to 25m thick) mineralised zones. Havana is also dominantly hosted in quartzo-feldspathic gneiss, again with a garnet gneiss dominated hangingwall.

Mineralisation is accompanied by pyrite (2% to 8%) with accessory pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and other minor sulphides and tellurides. The gold mineralisation is related to shear planes that postdate the main gneissic fabric developed during peak granulite-facies metamorphism.

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

CommodityUnits2024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Gold koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe518467432448496
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré. ^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational metrics

Metrics202320222021202020192018201720162015
Annual milling capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe8.2 Mt7.5 Mt7.5 Mt5.8 Mt5.8 Mt
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe17,211 kt10,452 kt8,875 kdmt8,499 kdmt12,364 kwmt
Waste OP  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe73,406 kt76,544 kt73,249 kdmt50,350 kdmt42,761 kwmt
Tonnes milled  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe8,177 kt7,781 kt7,326 kdmt6,528 kdmt5,826 kwmt
Total tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe

Production Costs

CommodityUnits20242023202220212020201920182017
Cash costs Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 680 / oz   713 / oz   817 / oz  
Total cash costs Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold AUD  ....  Subscribe 951 / oz   1,061 / oz   1,162 / oz  
^ Guidance / Forecast.

Financials

Units202320222020201920182017
Capital expenditures M  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 58.3  AUD 47.7  AUD 32.3  AUD
Revenue M  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 928.3  AUD 801.3  AUD 706.4  AUD
Operating Income M  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 325.4  AUD 287.6  AUD 194.3  AUD
EBITDA M  ....  Subscribe 577  AUD 470  AUD 353.7  AUD

Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 19, 2023
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....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 19, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 19, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 19, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 19, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 19, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 19, 2023

EmployeesContractorsTotal WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2023
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2022
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2021
...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required ...... Subscription required 2020
...... 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

Aerial view:

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