Overview
Stage | Production |
Mine Type | Open Pit |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
|
Production Start | 2013 |
Akyem production is expected to decrease in 2023 as stripping begins for a new layback to extend mine life, with stripping expected to peak in 2024.
Akyem unit costs are expected to be impacted by lower production volumes due to mine sequencing in 2023. |
Source:
p. 44, 172, 187
Company | Interest | Ownership |
Newmont Corp.
|
100 %
|
Indirect
|
Newmont Golden Ridge Ltd.
(operator)
|
100 %
|
Direct
|
The Akyem Mine is a gold mine located at New Abirem in the Eastern Region of Ghana, wholly owned by Newmont Golden Ridge Limited (NGRL).
Newmont Golden Ridge Limited is a 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, 2022
|
|
|
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 Akyem mine is an orogenic gold deposit that has oxide and primary mineralization. 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 mine is an open pit mining operation.
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:

- subscription is required.
Processing
- Smelting
- Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
- Counter current decantation (CCD)
- Carbon in leach (CIL)
- 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 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
Gold
|
Recovery Rate, %
| 89.5 | 89.4 | 90.6 | 90.8 | 91.2 | 92.3 | 91.7 |
Gold
|
Head Grade, g/t
| 1.75 | 1.69 | 1.58 | 1.82 | 1.82 | 1.92 | 1.92 |
Production:
Commodity | Units | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Gold
|
koz
| 315-345 ^ | 420 | 381 | 371 | 422 | 414 | 473 |
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.
^ Guidance / Forecast.
Operational Metrics:
Metrics | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Ore tonnes mined
| 6,261 kt | 7,515 kt | 7,793 k tons | 12,845 k tons | 11,709 k tons | 9,058 k tons |
Waste
| 22,816 kt | 18,682 kt | 23,248 k tons | 22,842 k tons | 23,966 k tons | 26,169 k tons |
Total tonnes mined
| 29,077 kt | 26,197 kt | 31,041 k tons | 35,687 k tons | 35,675 k tons | 35,227 k tons |
Tonnes processed
| 8,195 kt | 7,959 kt | 9,007 k tons | 8,660 k tons | 8,566 k tons | 9,273 k tons |
Daily mining rate
| | | | | 88 kt | 91 kt |
Annual processing capacity
| | | | | 7.7 Mt | 8.5 Mt |
Reserves at December 31, 2022:
Cut-off grade utilized in 2022 reserves not less than 0.52 gram per tonne.
Category | OreType | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Proven & Probable
|
Stockpiles
|
11,900 kt
|
Gold
|
0.71 g/t
|
270 koz
|
Proven & Probable
|
In-Situ (OP)
|
22,300 kt
|
Gold
|
1.66 g/t
|
1,190 koz
|
Proven & Probable
|
Total
|
34,200 kt
|
Gold
|
1.33 g/t
|
1,460 koz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
In-Situ (OP)
|
1,700 kt
|
Gold
|
0.69 g/t
|
40 koz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
In-Situ (UG)
|
8,300 kt
|
Gold
|
3.92 g/t
|
1,050 koz
|
Measured & Indicated
|
Total
|
10,000 kt
|
Gold
|
3.38 g/t
|
1,090 koz
|
Inferred
|
In-Situ (OP)
|
1,800 kt
|
Gold
|
1.18 g/t
|
70 koz
|
Inferred
|
In-Situ (UG)
|
5,300 kt
|
Gold
|
3.27 g/t
|
560 koz
|
Inferred
|
Total
|
7,100 kt
|
Gold
|
2.74 g/t
|
620 koz
|
Commodity Production Costs:
| Commodity | Units | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Credits (by-product)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
|
-3 / oz
|
-5 / oz
|
-4 / oz
|
|
|
|
Total cash costs (sold)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
900 / oz ^†
|
804 / oz†
|
691 / oz†
|
621 / oz†
|
558 / oz†
|
546 / oz†
|
573 / oz†
|
All-in sustaining costs (sold)
|
Gold
|
USD
|
1,160 / oz ^†
|
972 / oz†
|
913 / oz†
|
757 / oz†
|
718 / oz†
|
705 / oz†
|
664 / oz†
|
^ Guidance / Forecast.
† Net of By-Product.
Financials:
| Units | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
Capital expenditures (planned)
|
M USD
| 30 | | | | |
|
|
Sustaining costs
|
M USD
| | 32 | 49 | 26 | 28 |
40
|
26
|
Capital expenditures
|
M USD
| | 34 | 66 | 27 | 33 |
40
|
26
|
Revenue
|
M USD
| | 749 | 680 | 671 | 585 |
|
|
Pre-tax Income
|
M USD
| | 257 | 284 | 291 | 176 |
125
|
152
|
Type | Material | Diameter | Length | Description |
Heavy Mobile Equipment as of December 31, 2022:
Source:
p.46
HME Type | Size | Quantity |
Backhoe
|
|
2
|
Excavator
|
|
2
|
Truck (haul)
|
136 t
|
21
|
Mine Management:
Job Title | Name | Email | Profile | Ref. Date |
Chief Metallurgist
|
Andrew Agaza
|
|
|
May 15, 2023
|
Construction Manager
|
Jayne Finch
|
jayne.finch@newmont.com
|
|
May 31, 2023
|
Exploration Manager
|
Samuel Bosomtwe
|
|
|
May 15, 2023
|
General Manager - Processing
|
Daniel Egya-Mensah
|
daniel.egya-mensah@newmont.com
|
|
May 15, 2023
|
Health & Safety Superintendent
|
Samuel Eshun
|
|
|
May 31, 2023
|
Health & Safety Superintendent
|
Rockson Owusu
|
|
|
May 31, 2023
|
Mine Manager
|
Robert Owusu-Bempah
|
|
|
May 15, 2023
|
Process Maintenance Superintendent
|
Michael Coleman
|
|
|
May 15, 2023
|
Process Operations Superintendent
|
Collins Adu-Poku
|
|
|
May 31, 2023
|
Technology Manager
|
Elizabeth Twum Bannor
|
|
|
May 15, 2023
|
Staff:
Total Workforce | Year |
1,900
|
2022
|
1,400
|
2018
|
1,400
|
2017
|
1,400
|
2016
|
1,450
|
2015
|
Corporate Filings & Presentations: