Mining Intelligence and News
Ghana

Akyem Mine

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Summary

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StatusActive
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
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SnapshotThe Akyem Gold Mine, one of the largest in Ghana, is operation located in one of the world’s major gold metallogenic belts. Run-of-mine (ROM) ore is conveyed via a 1.8 km overland conveyor to the live stockpile. The mine is planned to transition to underground mining in the future.
Latest NewsNewmont Completes Its Non-Core Divestiture Program With the Sale of Akyem and Porcupine     April 16, 2025

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd 100 % Indirect
On 9 October 2024, Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd. and its subsidiary Gold Source International Holdings Company Limited signed an agreement with Newmont Corporation and Newmont Golden Ridge Ltd to acquire 100% of the Akyem Gold Mine.

On 16 April 2025, Newmont Corporation announced the completion of the sale of its Akyem operation.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Orogenic
  • Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

The Akyem mine is an orogenic gold deposit that has oxide and primary mineralization. The ore deposit extends over 2.5 kilometres long, and is localised along a southeast dipping over 900 metres deep. The ore deposit is composed of many high-grade orebodies with widths from 10 to 100 metres. The orebodies are thick and exhibit good mineralisation continuity, indicating strong potential for resource development, utilisation and exploration.

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.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Commodity 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.
CommodityUnits2024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Gold koz  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe422414473470473
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.

Operational metrics

Metrics2024202320222021202020192018201720162015
Ore tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe12,845 k tons11,709 k tons9,058 k tons9,899 k tons10,325 k tons
Waste  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe22,842 k tons23,966 k tons26,169 k tons26,639 k tons25,507 k tons
Total tonnes mined  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe35,687 k tons35,675 k tons35,227 k tons36,538 k tons35,832 k tons
Tonnes processed  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe8,660 k tons8,566 k tons9,273 k tons9,276 k tons7,991 k tons
Daily mining rate  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe88 kt91 kt91 kt90 kt
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe7.7 Mt8.5 Mt8.5 Mt8.5 Mt

Production Costs

CommodityUnits20242023202220212020201920182017
Credits (by-product) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe -3 / oz  
Cash costs (sold) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 524 / oz  
Total cash costs (sold) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 558 / oz **   546 / oz **   573 / oz **  
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 718 / oz **   705 / oz **   664 / oz **  
** Net of By-Product.

Mine Financials

Units20242023202220212020201920182017
Sustaining costs M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 28   40   26  
Capital expenditures M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 33   40   26  
Revenue M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 585  
Pre-tax Income M USD  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe  ....  Subscribe 176   125   152  
After-tax Income M USD  ....  Subscribe

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 21, 2025
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required May 5, 2025
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 21, 2025
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Apr 21, 2025

Workforce

Total WorkforceYear
...... Subscription required 2022
...... Subscription required 2018
...... Subscription required 2017
...... Subscription required 2016
...... Subscription required 2015

Aerial view:

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