Overview
Stage | Production |
Mine Type | Open Pit |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
|
Processing |
- Smelting
- Crush & Screen plant
- Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
- Counter current decantation (CCD)
- Carbon in leach (CIL)
- Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
- Elution
- Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
- Cyanide (reagent)
|
Production Start | 2013 |
Based on a comprehensive review of the Company’s portfolio of assets following the Newcrest acquisition, the Company’s Board of Directors approved a portfolio optimization program to divest six non-core assets and a development project in February 2024. The non-core assets to be divested include Akyem, CC&V, Éléonore, Porcupine, Musselwhite, Telfer, and a development project in Canada. In February 2024, the Company concluded that these non-core assets and the development project met the accounting requirements to be presented as Held for Sale in the first quarter of 2024, based on progress made through active sales program and management’s expectation that the sale is probable and will be completed within 12 months. |
Source:
p. 190,193
Company | Interest | Ownership |
Newmont Corp.
|
100 %
|
Indirect
|
Newmont Golden Ridge Ltd.
(operator)
|
100 %
|
Direct
|
The Akyem Mine is held by Newmont Golden Ridge Limited (NGRL). NGRL is an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Newmont Corp.
Contractors
Contractor | Contract | Description | Ref. Date | Expiry | Source |
Volta River Authority
|
Power supply
|
The Akyem mine operates using electrical power generated by the Volta River Authority along with supplemental power generation capacity built by Newmont.
|
Dec 31, 2023
|
|
|
Deposit Type
- Orogenic
- Vein / narrow vein
Source:
Summary:
The Akyem mine is an orogenic gold deposit that has oxide and primary mineralization.
The Akyem deposit is localized in the hanging wall (upper side or plate) of a regional fault that trends to the northeast (N70°E) parallel to regional structures and dips to the southeast (S60°E) parallel to the foliation developed in a Birimian host rock. The planar fault structure (thrust fault)[11,12] is intensely sheared and exhibits a mylonitic to cataclastic fragmental texture consisting of lens of metavolcanic fragments in a matrix of sheared and plastically deformed graphitic material. The presence of graphitic rubble zones suggests reactivation of the fault zone over time. The fault occurs in fine grained, gray green massive to locally sheared Birimian mafic metavolcanic rocks exhibiting chlorite and carbonate alteration that locally contain euhedral magnetite. Immediately overlying the metavolcanics is a distinctive gray green pink unit containing blue quartz phenocrysts in a mylonitic matrix (quartz epiclastic rock). The upper and lower contacts of this unit are typically sheared and brecciated, and the upper contact of this unit is locally in sharp contact with overlying light gray tan chert. This unit is considered sedimentary and represents a distinctive marker between the metavolcanic and metasedimentary units of the Birimian. The overlying metasedimentary rocks are for the most part turbidite sequences consisting of graywacke, argillites, black carbonaceous siltstone, and fine grained arkosic sandstones. This unit grades upward into a saprolitically weathered zone (deeply weathered bedrock largely altered to clay) that ranges from 10 to 50 m thick. The saprolite consists of lateritic clay and quartz fragments with as much as 25% weathered rock remaining within the saprolite. Near the surface, in the upper 1–5 m, red lateritic clay is developed as subsoil.
The gold is found in shear zones within greenschist-facies metasediments that have kilometer-scale vertical and lateral extent. Gold occurs primarily in pyrite and secondarily as native gold in quartz veins.
Source:
Summary:
Akyem, located in Birim North District of the Eastern Region of Ghana, approximately 80 miles (125 kilometers) northwest of the national capital city of Accra, is an open pit mining operation comprised of two mining leases issued under the Ghanaian Mining Act, encompassing an area of approximately 16,000 acres (6,000 hectares).
The mining method at the Akyem mine involves removal of ore and waste rock from an open pit mine. The open pit is an elongated structure consisting of a large western lobe (Main Pit) and a small eastern lobe (East Pit), connected near the surface.
Mining is conducted using large scale conventional hard rock drill and blast open pit methodology. Run of Mine (ROM) ore is trucked from the pits using CAT 785 DT’s.
Source:
Source:
- subscription is required.
Processing
- Smelting
- Crush & Screen plant
- Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
- Counter current decantation (CCD)
- Carbon in leach (CIL)
- Carbon adsorption-desorption-recovery (ADR)
- Elution
- Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
- Cyanide (reagent)
Source:
Summary:
The Akyem Process Plant consists of a conventional mill and carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit. Ore from the mine workings is transported to a crushing, grinding and milling circuit. Ore processing consists of CIL cyanidation, elution and gold recovery. Tailings material is conveyed by pipeline to a counter-current decantation (CCD) plant where tailings are rinsed with water to reduce Weak Acid Dissociable (WAD) cyanide concentrations to less than 50ppm WAD cyanide. The tailings are pumped from the CCD circuit via a dedicated pipeline contained within a lined tailings trench, to an engineered tailings storage facility (TSF) for final disposal. Tailings water is recovered from a decant pond, and recycled back to the process plant for re-use in the milling circuit.
Recoveries & Grades:
Commodity | Parameter | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Gold
|
Recovery Rate, %
| 89.5 | 89.5 | 89.4 | 90.6 | 90.8 | 91.2 | 92.3 |
Gold
|
Head Grade, g/t
| 1.32 | 1.75 | 1.69 | 1.58 | 1.82 | 1.82 | 1.92 |
Production:
In 2023, gold production decreased 30% primarily due to lower ore grade milled and lower mill throughput as a result of re-sequencing the mine plan and temporarily suspending mining in the main pit to make safety improvements and fortify the catch berms above the haul road into the pit.
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.
^ Guidance / Forecast.
Operational Metrics:
Metrics | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
Ore tonnes mined
| 3,523 kt | 6,261 kt | 7,515 kt | 7,793 k tons | 12,845 k tons | 11,709 k tons |
Waste
| 20,971 kt | 22,816 kt | 18,682 kt | 23,248 k tons | 22,842 k tons | 23,966 k tons |
Total tonnes mined
| 24,494 kt | 29,077 kt | 26,197 kt | 31,041 k tons | 35,687 k tons | 35,675 k tons |
Tonnes processed
| 7,646 kt | 8,195 kt | 7,959 kt | 9,007 k tons | 8,660 k tons | 8,566 k tons |
Daily mining rate
| | | | | | 88 kt |
Annual processing capacity
| | | | | | 7.7 Mt |
Reserves at December 31, 2023:
Cut-off grade utilized in 2023 reserves not less than 0.52 gram per tonne.
Category | OreType | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Proven & Probable
|
Stockpiles
|
6,700 kt
|
Gold
|
0.78 g/t
|
200 koz
|
Proven & Probable
|
In-Situ (OP)
|
19,000 kt
|
Gold
|
1.55 g/t
|
900 koz
|
Proven & Probable
|
Total
|
25,600 kt
|
Gold
|
1.35 g/t
|
1,100 koz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
In-Situ (OP)
|
10,600 kt
|
Gold
|
3.57 g/t
|
1,200 koz
|
Inferred
|
In-Situ (OP)
|
5,600 kt
|
Gold
|
2.95 g/t
|
500 koz
|
Commodity Production Costs:
| Commodity | Units | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
Credits (by-product)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
|
-6 / oz
|
-3 / oz
|
-5 / oz
|
-4 / oz
|
-3 / oz
|
|
Cash costs (sold)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
|
826 / oz
|
621 / oz
|
575 / oz
|
563 / oz
|
524 / oz
|
|
Total cash costs (sold)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
1,780 / oz ^†
|
931 / oz†
|
804 / oz†
|
691 / oz†
|
621 / oz†
|
558 / oz†
|
546 / oz†
|
All-in sustaining costs (sold)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
2,100 / oz ^†
|
1,210 / oz†
|
972 / oz†
|
913 / oz†
|
757 / oz†
|
718 / oz†
|
705 / oz†
|
^ Guidance / Forecast.
† Net of By-Product.
Financials:
| Units | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
Capital expenditures (planned)
|
M USD
| 15 | | | | |
|
|
Sustaining costs
|
M USD
| | 37 | 32 | 49 | 26 |
28
|
40
|
Capital expenditures
|
M USD
| | 40 | 34 | 66 | 27 |
33
|
40
|
Revenue
|
M USD
| | 574 | 749 | 680 | 671 |
585
|
|
Pre-tax Income
|
M USD
| | 151 | 257 | 284 | 291 |
176
|
125
|
Heavy Mobile Equipment as of December 31, 2023:
Source:
p.60
HME Type | Model | Size | Quantity |
Backhoe
|
|
|
2
|
Excavator
|
|
|
2
|
Truck (haul)
|
Caterpillar 785
|
145 t
|
21
|
Mine Management:
Job Title | Name | Email | Profile | Ref. Date |
Chief Metallurgist
|
Andrew Agaza
|
|
|
Apr 9, 2024
|
Construction Manager
|
Jayne Finch
|
jayne.finch@newmont.com
|
|
Apr 9, 2024
|
General Manager - Processing
|
Daniel Egya-Mensah
|
daniel.egya-mensah@newmont.com
|
|
Apr 9, 2024
|
Health & Safety Superintendent
|
Samuel Eshun
|
|
|
Apr 9, 2024
|
Health & Safety Superintendent
|
Rockson Owusu
|
|
|
Apr 9, 2024
|
Mine Manager
|
Robert Owusu-Bempah
|
|
|
Apr 9, 2024
|
Process Maintenance Superintendent
|
Michael Coleman
|
|
|
Apr 9, 2024
|
Technology Manager
|
Elizabeth Twum Bannor
|
|
|
Apr 9, 2024
|
Staff:
Total Workforce | Year |
1,900
|
2022
|
1,400
|
2018
|
1,400
|
2017
|
1,400
|
2016
|
1,450
|
2015
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations: