Overview
Status | Care and Maintenance |
Mine Type | Open Pit & Underground |
Commodities |
|
Mining Method |
- Truck & Shovel / Loader
- Longhole stoping
|
Processing |
- Gravity separation
- Carbon in leach (CIL)
|
Tanami Gold's 100% owned Coyote Gold Project. The underground operation has recently been placed on care and maintenance. The Coyote Gold Project is located approximately 90 kilometres west of the Central Tanami Project. |
Summary:
Coyote and Bald Hill lie toward the western end of The Granites - Tanami Inlier, which is a highly deformed and metamorphosed Palaeoproterozoic block, approximately 250 km long and 100 km wide.
The basement was subjected to the Barramundi Orogeny prior to the deposition of the overlying sediments. Post-Barramundi rifting led to deposition of mafic volcanics, volcaniclastics and clastics and calc-silicatesof the McFarlane Peak Group. This was succeeded by the deposition of the Tanami Group in a passive marine environment.
The Coyote Deposit is hosted within folded turbidite clastic sediments of the Lower Proterozoic Killi Killi Beds. These sediments consist of dominantly well-sorted, coarse to very coarse greywackes, sandstones and siltstones, with variable but generally very weak carbonaceous content. A sub- marine fan setting, proximal to the sediment source was suggested, with sandstone thought to be deposited within sub-marine canyons eroding the clastic fan.
Quartz veining occurs in several different structural settings but the orebodies are generally associated with finely disseminated or coarsely crystallised arsenopyrite mineralisation with only traces of other sulphides or of carbonates.
Parallel thrust faults that ramp through the bedding, such as the Gonzalez Thrust Zone, occur on both the south and north limbs but are more common on the south limb. Thicker (10 to 30 centimetres (cm)) parallel quartz veins form as a result of dilation associated with this thrusting. These veins are best developed between thick siltstone and greywacke/sandstone units. There are a number of sub-parallel thrusts on the south limb, each with differing amounts of displacement. The Coyote antiform is cut and block faulted by north - northwest trending faults and lesser northeast faults that offset the stratigraphy and axial plane. Quartz veining is often associated with the faulting and shearing
Mining Methods
- Truck & Shovel / Loader
- Longhole stoping
Summary:
Bald Hill is comprised of two small open pits (Kookaburra and Sandpiper), one rehabilitated pit (Osprey), a WRL, low-grade and mineralised waste stockpiles, ROM pads, an evaporation dam, a haul road to Coyote and basic mining support infrastructure.
Current open pit resources have been mined out, although there is still a resource of approximately 600,000 t of ore at approximately 6 g/t remaining under the pits that has underground potential. Modifications to the mill at Coyote are required to process this resource, as there are metallurgical recovery issues related to grind of the slightly refractory ore.
The underground workings provide access to further resource base with underground development outlined in mine planning at the time Coyote went into Care and maintenance.
Processing
- Gravity separation
- Carbon in leach (CIL)
Source:
Summary:
• 240,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) capacity gravity and CIL (carbon-in-leach) gold plant at Coyote.
• All other related surface infrastructure including airstrip, mobile equipment, tailings storage, workshops, offices, and camp.
Coyote is located in Western Australia, approximately 45 kilometres (direct), or 77 kilometres using existing roads / tracks, from the Old Pirate High-Grade Gold Deposit in the Northern Territory.
Coyote consists of crushers, ball mill, Knelson concentrator, Acacia intensive leach unit, CIL tanks and gold room. The first part of the circuit is similar but larger than, ABM’s own trial processing plant and Coyote has the additional benefit of a carbon-in-leach circuit to recover fine gold. Based on test work conducted by ABM previously the Company can expect recovery up to 99% gold.
Commodity | Parameter |
Gold
|
Recovery Rate, %
|
Gold
|
Head Grade, g/t
|
Production:
Commodity | Units | 2013 |
Gold
|
oz
| 30,216 |
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.
Operational Metrics:
Metrics | 2014 | 2013 |
Annual processing capacity
| 240,000 t | |
Ore tonnes mined
| | 191,741 t |
Reserves at December 31, 2014:
Category | Tonnage | Commodity | Grade | Contained Metal |
Measured
|
25,000 t
|
Gold
|
23.6 g/t
|
19,000 oz
|
Indicated
|
338,300 t
|
Gold
|
11.7 g/t
|
127,000 oz
|
Inferred
|
382,500 t
|
Gold
|
12.3 g/t
|
151,000 oz
|
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