• Data Access
  • Your Email  
  • Your Email  
Keep me signed in.
Forgot your password?
Close
  • Forgot Your Password?
  • Enter the email you signed up with and we'll email it to you.
  • Your Email  
Close
Back
MDO
Mining Data Solutions
  • Home
  • Database
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In
  • Sign In
Ghana
Akyem Mine

This page is not tailored to
devices with screen width under 750 px.
 Location:
76 km SE from Kumasi, Ghana

  Address:
P.O. Box 251
Nkawkaw
Ghana
Phone+233-(0)50-132-3692
WebsiteWeb
Additional Resources for Suppliers & Investors
Drill results over 30 g/t Au
Stay on top of recent discoveries.
Search drill results by commodity and grade.
Largest mines in the Americas
Mining and mill throughput capaciites.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Deepest underground mines
Shaft depth and mill throughput data.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Heavy mobile equipment
HME type, model, size and quantity.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Permitting and construction projects
Projects at the permitting or construction stage. Full profiles of select projects.
Mines with remote camps
Camp size, mine location and contacts.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
Mines & projects in Ghana
A list of country's mines and projects.
Full profiles of select mines and projects.
  • Overview
  • Owners
  • Geology
  • Mining
  • Processing
  • Production
  • Reserves
  • Costs & Financials
  • Fleet
  • Personnel
  • Filings & News

Thank you for browsing through mine profiles compiled by the Mining Data Online team.

Would you like to subcribe or schedule a Demo?
  • Name:
     
  • Company:
     
  • Position:
     
  • Phone:
  • Email:
  • Message:

Overview

StageProduction
Mine TypeOpen Pit
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Production Start2013
Mine Life19 years (as of Jan 1, 2013)


Owners

Source: p. 44, 172, 187
CompanyInterestOwnership
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

ContractorContractDescriptionRef. DateExpirySource
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, 2021


Deposit Type

  • Orogenic
  • Vein / narrow vein

Source: Source

Summary:

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.


Mining Methods

  • Truck & Shovel / Loader

Source:

Summary:

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. The planned pit covers an area of approximately 345 acres (139 hectares).

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.


Crushing and Grinding
Source: Subscription required

- subscription is required.


Processing

  • Smelting
  • Agitated tank (VAT) leaching
  • Counter current decantation (CCD)
  • Carbon in leach (CIL)
  • Elution
  • Solvent Extraction & Electrowinning
  • Cyanide (reagent)

Source: Source

Summary:

The ore sources that are being treated in the Akyem mill includes an Oxide ore (consisting of Oxide Mafic and Oxide Greywacke ores), followed by a deeper Primary ore body (consisting of primary Mafic and primary Greywacke ores).

The Akyem gold processing plant was commissioned in 2013 to treat an average of 8.5 million tonnes of ore annually. With the depletion of oxide ore.

The process plant consists of a large conventional SAG and Ball Mill in closed circuit configuration with an annual production rate of >8mt. The rest of the Process Plant consists of a carbon-in-leach circuit with cyanidation followed by elution and refining for gold doré recovery.

Tailings remaining after completion of the processing and precious metals recovery are conveyed by pipeline to a counter-current decantation (CCD) plant where the tailings are rinsed with decant return water to reduce WAD cyanide concentrations to less than 50ppm WAD cyanide prior to final disposal. After the CCD circuit, the tailings are transferred via a lined tailings trench, to an engineered, lined tailings storage facility (TSF) for permanent disposal.

Sparging is a closed circuit mixing process that passes pH-adjusted water from a mixing tank through the isotainer in a continuous circuit until the required concentration of liquid cyanide is achieved. On completion of the sparging process, the liquid cyanide is transferred from the mixing tank to a dedicated storage tank, ready for delivery by pipeline to the process plant. All pipelines used for the transfer of cyanide to the process plant or within the process plant are either double-piped or installed above containment facilities to prevent the escape of leaks or spills to the surrounding surface.

The cyanide mixing facility at Akyem is specifically designed to handle the bulk sparging operations.

Recoveries & Grades:

CommodityParameter2021202020192018201720162015
Gold Recovery Rate, % 89.490.690.891.292.391.790.8
Gold Head Grade, g/t 1.691.581.821.821.921.922.09

Production:

CommodityUnits2022202120202019201820172016
Gold koz 400 ^381371422414473470
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré. ^ Guidance / Forecast.

Operational Metrics:

Metrics202120202019201820172016
Total tonnes mined 26,197 kt31,041 k tons35,687 k tons35,675 k tons35,227 k tons36,538 k tons
Ore tonnes mined 7,515 kt7,793 k tons12,845 k tons11,709 k tons9,058 k tons9,899 k tons
Waste 18,682 kt23,248 k tons22,842 k tons23,966 k tons26,169 k tons26,639 k tons
Tonnes processed 7,959 kt9,007 k tons8,660 k tons8,566 k tons9,273 k tons9,276 k tons
Daily mining rate 88 kt91 kt91 kt
Annual processing capacity 7.7 Mt8.5 Mt8.5 Mt

Reserves at December 31, 2021:
Cut-off grade utilized in 2021 reserves not less than 0.56 gram per tonne.

CategoryOreTypeTonnage CommodityGradeContained Metal
Proven & Probable Stockpiles 13,900 kt Gold 0.78 g/t 350 koz
Proven & Probable In-Situ (OP) 26,700 kt Gold 1.72 g/t 1,470 koz
Proven & Probable Total 40,600 kt Gold 1.4 g/t 1,820 koz
Measured & Indicated In-Situ (OP) 2,000 kt Gold 0.62 g/t 40 koz
Measured & Indicated In-Situ (UG) 6,800 kt Gold 3.69 g/t 810 koz
Measured & Indicated Total 8,800 kt Gold 3 g/t 850 koz
Inferred In-Situ (OP) 1,300 kt Gold 1.43 g/t 60 koz
Inferred In-Situ (UG) 5,400 kt Gold 2.97 g/t 520 koz
Inferred Total 6,700 kt Gold 2.69 g/t 580 koz

Commodity Production Costs:

CommodityUnits202220212020201920182017
Credits (by-product) Gold USD -5 / oz   -4 / oz  
Total cash costs (sold) Gold USD 725 / oz ^†   691 / oz†   621 / oz†   558 / oz†   546 / oz†   573 / oz†  
All-in sustaining costs (sold) Gold USD 925 / oz ^†   913 / oz†   757 / oz†   718 / oz†   705 / oz†   664 / oz†  
^ Guidance / Forecast.
† Net of By-Product.

Financials:

Units2022202120202019201820172016
Capital expenditures (planned) M USD 50  
Sustaining costs M USD 49  26  28   40   26   24  
Capital expenditures M USD 66  27  33   40   26   22  
Revenue M USD 680  671  585  
Pre-tax Income M USD 284  291  176   125   152   214  


Pipelines
TypeMaterialDiameterLengthDescription


Heavy Mobile Equipment as of December 31, 2021:
Source: Source p.44
HME TypeSizeQuantity
Backhoe 2
Excavator 2
Truck (haul) 136 t 19

Mine Management:

Job TitleNamePhoneProfileRef. Date
General Manager - Processing Daniel Egya-Mensah +233 (0) 50 132 3692 LinkedIn Oct 17, 2022
Health & Safety Manager Yaw Kyei Amoako LinkedIn Oct 17, 2022
Mine Maintenance Superintendent Raul Chauca LinkedIn Oct 17, 2022
Mine Manager Robert Owusu-Bempah LinkedIn Oct 17, 2022

Staff:

Total WorkforceYear
1,400 2018
1,400 2017
1,400 2016
1,450 2015

Corporate Filings & Presentations:

DocumentYear
Corporate Presentation 2022
Form 10-K 2021
Other 2021
Quarterly Report 2021
Form 10-K 2020
Other 2020
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2020
Form 10-K 2019
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2019
Form 10-K 2018
Other 2018
Quarterly Report 2018
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2018
Form 10-K 2017
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2017
Form 10-K 2016
Other 2016
Other 2016
Press Release 2016
Year-end Mineral Reserves 2016
Form 10-K 2015
Other 2015
Other 2014
Form 10-K 2013

Aerial view:

Terms of Use Privacy Policy © 2017-2023 MDO Data Online Inc.