Overview
| Status | Care and Maintenance |
| Mine Type | Open Pit |
| Commodities |
|
| Mining Method |
|
| Production Start | ...  |
| Mine Life | 2025 |
Great Panther Mining Brazilian subsidiary, Mina Tucano Ltda., intends to enter a temporary care and maintenance period while Great Panther Mining explores alternatives to maximize value for all stakeholders. Great Panther Mining intends to continue to process stockpiles during the care and maintenance period and work with its suppliers to maximize stakeholder value.
Optimized mine plan for Tucano sees a return to steadystate production in H2 2022:
• Production from URN & TAP C in H1; TAP AB and URCN in H2;
• Accelerating studies for Urucum North underground project; Engineering studies and permitting are underway and construction work is expected to commence in late 2022 with gold production from the Urucum North underground mine anticipated to come onstream in 2023;
• UCS pushback expected in H2; production from Urucum Central South (UCS) expected to resume in 2023. |
Source:
p. 42
Great Panther owns a 100% interest in Tucano through its wholly owned subsidiary, Mina Tucano.
Contractors
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Deposit Type
- Orogenic
- Banded iron formation hosted
Summary:
The Tucano gold deposits are hosted in shear zones within a number of different Paleoproterozoic, metasedimentary host rocks. This mineralization style is considered to represent an orogenic, structurally controlled gold mineralizing system.
The mineralization at the Tucano Gold Mine occurs in a series of deposits over a sevenkilometre strike length associated with a north-south trending shear zone occurring coincident with a north-south line of topographic ridges. The shear zone is hosted by the Proterozoic aged Vila Nova greenstone belt and occurs near the contact of a large dominantly clastic/ chemical sedimentary package to the southwest and amphibolitic package to the northwest. The greenstone belt has been extensively intruded by younger mafic to felsic intrusive bodies.
From south to north, these deposits have been named TAP A, B, C, and Urucum. TAP D is a separate structure in the west. Higher grades are associated with the more intensely hydrothermally altered iron formations and iron rich carbonate units bounding and intercalated with them.
The texture and mineralogy along the shear zone indicate a high-temperature hydrothermal system. The interaction of favourable rock type, structure, heat, and mineralized solutions has resulted in the deposition of gold bearing, non-refractory sulphides concentrated near or on major lithological contacts. This mineralized zone exhibits intense hydrothermal alteration, particularly silicification a ........
Summary:
The Tucano Gold Mine is a well-established open pit mining operation comprising four open pits, Urucum, Urucum East, TAP AB, and Duckhead.
Open pit mining is currently being undertaken by the mine contractor. In 2022, Great Panther engaged a new open pit mining contractor, Minax: Transportes e Construções Ltda (“Minax”) to initially operate in parallel with the existing contractor that is scheduled to cease activities at the end of year. Mobilization of the new mining contractor has already begun and will continue into mid-2022. The new contractor is a Brazilian company using a new mining fleet, which will contribute to an improvement in overall mine performance. In addition to earthmoving responsibilities for both waste and ore, the contractors are responsible for production drilling, pre-shear drilling, pit dewatering, ore re-handle, crusher feed, maintenance and supervision of their fleet of equipment.
Haulage ramps were designed at 12 m width for 30 m³ class trucks and two-way traffic. For the final four benches in the bottom of the final pit design, the haul road was narrowed to a width of 10 m, suitable for single-lane traffic. The maximum ramp gradient is 10%. All roads required a cap of crushed rock to facilitate all-season use.
Pits were designed with 4 m operating bench heights. For pits with catch benches at 12 m intervals and increased to 6 m wide (previously 4 m) to assist maintenance. It may be possible in some higher elevation a ........
Source:
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Flow Sheet:
Summary:
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Production:
| Commodity | Units | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
|
Gold
|
koz
| ...... ^ | ...... | ...... | ...... | 123 | 130 | 146 |
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.
^ Guidance / Forecast.
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Operational Metrics:
| Metrics | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
|
Total tonnes mined
| ...... | ...... | 19,343,355 t | 20,657 kt | 21,253,363 t | 19,590,706 t |
|
Ore tonnes mined
| ...... | ...... | 1,876,031 t | 2,441 kt | 3,017,666 t | 2,935,037 t |
|
Waste
| ...... | ...... | 17,438,667 t | 18,217 kt | | |
|
Tonnes milled
| ...... | ...... | 2,520,981 t | | 3,720,125 t | 3,597,163 t |
|
Stripping / waste ratio
| ...... | ...... | 9.3 | 7.5 | | |
|
Daily milling capacity
| ...... | ...... | | 10,000 t | | |
|
Annual milling capacity
| ...... | ...... | 3.4 Mt | | | |
|
Daily mining rate
| ...... | ...... | 62,000 t | | | |
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Reserves at July 31, 2021:
Open pit Mineral Reserves are estimated within designed pits above marginal cut-off grades that vary from 0.40 g/t Au to 0.45 g/t Au for oxide ore and 0.46 g/t Au to 0.50 g/t Au for sulphide ore. Underground Mineral Reserves were estimated using a cut-off grade of 2.4 g/t Au.
| Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
|
Proven
|
4,084 kt
|
Gold
|
1.2 g/t
|
158,000 oz
|
|
Probable
|
9,413 kt
|
Gold
|
1.73 g/t
|
524,000 oz
|
|
Proven & Probable
|
13,496 kt
|
Gold
|
1.57 g/t
|
682,000 oz
|
|
Measured
|
7,051 kt
|
Gold
|
1.06 g/t
|
240,000 oz
|
|
Indicated
|
21,355 kt
|
Gold
|
1.55 g/t
|
1,064,000 oz
|
|
Measured & Indicated
|
28,407 kt
|
Gold
|
1.43 g/t
|
1,303,000 oz
|
|
Inferred
|
6,782 kt
|
Gold
|
2.37 g/t
|
518,000 oz
|
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