PROJECTS AND EXPLORATION
BUCKREEF DRILLING PHASE 2
BOOST FOR DRILLING
• Location: Tanzania
• Phase: Exploration
• Resource: Gold
• Location: Botswana
• Phase: Exploration
• Resource: Copper
T
anzanian Gold Corporation has announced results from three holes
that bring an end to phase one of the in-pit drilling programme at
their Buckreef gold project in Tanzania.
Tanzanian Gold Corporation announced a three-phase drilling programme
in January this year. The primary objective of phase one was to upgrade
inferred resources within the open pit and to add additional ounces.
According to James Sinclair, executive chairman at Tanzanian Gold
Corporation, the company has drilled a total of about 4700m during the
phase one pit infill drilling programme.
"Our open pit and the substantive mineralised zones we are confirming
both in, and below the pit continue to impress. I believe we are seeing our
thesis of wider, deeper, richer being confirmed as we progress our drilling
programme from phase 1 into phase 2. Intersecting 89.6m of continuous
gold mineralisation outside and below the pit is spectacular and bodes well
for our future," says Sinclair.
L
ondon Stock Exchange AIM listed Metal Tiger has announced a further
USD1.1-million equity investment into Botswana-focused explorer
Kalahari Metals. Metal Tiger currently owns 50% of the issued share capital.
The additional investment will enable Kalahari Metals to complete its planned
first round drilling at the Ngami copper project and the Okavango copper
project, both in Botswana.
The cutting of access tracks for the 2100m diamond drill programme started, on
schedule, last month, and drill rigs will be mobilised this week.
According to Michael McNeilly, CEO of Metal Tiger, the additional funding will
allow Kalahari Metals to plan further work programmes over its license holdings.
“The Kalahari Copper Belt is highly prospective, and we are confident that
continued exploration work in the region will potentially result in new, exciting
copper discoveries,” says McNeilly.
SYAMA ON SCHEDULE
• Location: Mali
• Phase: Development
• Resource: Gold
Following the commencement of sublevel caving in December 2018,
the key elements of the ramp up of the Syama underground
mine consist of infrastructure, development, and the automation
implementation programme.
According to John Welborn, managing director and CEO at Resolute, the
company will continue focusing on the successful production ramp up to
nameplate capacity and the completion of full automation of all aspects
of the sublevel cave in 2019.
The June 2019 quarter saw substantial progress in development rates,
drill and blast performance and sublevel cave drawpoint availability. This
has resulted in a significant increase in the total blasted ore tonnage.
The haulage improvement has been achieved by the successful
development of additional production slots which has allowed the number
of active stoping areas (drawpoints) to be increased from six to twelve. As
current stoping activity is occurring on the first production levels of the cave,
a significant quantity of the ore blasted in the stopes is retained in-situ in
order to create an ore blanket against future hanging wall dilution. These ore
tonnes will be recovered from the lower levels of the mine. Consequently,
the blasted ore tonnage for the June 2019 quarter exceeded mined (hauled)
tonnage by more than 250 000 tonnes.
According to Welborn, the underground pumping systems are now fully
installed and operational. In addition to the underground pumping
facility, a surface water management programme is in place, which
allows the mine to intercept and remove a large volume of rainfall
that would otherwise enter the mine during heavy rain events. The
permanent primary ventilation system was installed and commissioned
during the March 2019 quarter and has resulted in reduced re-entry
times following blasts.
www. africanmining.co.za
African Mining Publication
R
esolute Mining’s Syama Underground Mine in Mali has achieved
commercial rates of ore production having mined and hauled in
excess of 80% of nameplate mine capacity. Syama will be the world’s
first fully automated underground gold mine and at full capacity will
produce about 46 000 tonnes of ore per week, or 2.4 million tonnes per
year, using a fully integrated automated mine fleet. All key aspects of the
mine are now operational with daily ore haulage rates regularly above
5 000 tonnes per day.
Work at Resolute Mining’s Syama underground mine remains on track.
Welborn states that the commissioning of the Syama Underground
Automation System is now well underway with operators in the newly
completed surface control room able to control underground production
units over shift-change, blasting and re-entry periods, when there are no
personnel in the underground mine. This represents the initial delivery
of one of the main benefits of automation, the ability to maintain
production over periods when operations would normally cease in a
typical manual mine.
The fibre optic backbone and mine-wide wireless network is now
complete from the portal down to the 1055 haulage level and is
connected to the surface control room. This network enables the
operation of the automated haulage loop, automated rehandle level,
mine digitisation and production automation, all of which allow operators
to monitor and control mine production in real time.
A major technical characteristic of the world’s first fully automated
haulage loop is the ability for Syama’s haul trucks to rapidly transition
from laser-based underground navigation to surface-based differential
global positioning system (GPS) navigation. Recent trials at Syama have
demonstrated Resolute’s haul trucks are able to acquire the feed from
the two surface GPS base stations and seamlessly lock onto satellite
guidance to complete the transition to GPS navigation without any delay
or speed reductions.
The next phase of automation work will see the commissioning of the 1055
haulage level with automated rehandle loaders and haulage trucks working
together to load from an ore pass and truck directly to the surface ROM pad.
With the fans, pump stations, control room and communications network
complete, the automation project is being progressively handed over to the
operations team which is now at normal operational manning levels.
African Mining
African Mining September 2019
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