Global projects and exploration
US Australia
The US Army Corps of Engineers and the US
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have issued a
Federal Record of Decision (ROD) for the Donlin
gold project in the State of Alaska in the US.
This follows the completion of the federal
National Environmental Policy Act process. Along
with the ROD, the Corps issued a combined
permit under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act
and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act.
Additionally, the BLM issued the Offer to Lease for
the right-of-way for those portions of the natural
gas pipeline that would cross federal lands.
“The issuance of the Donlin Gold ROD and
key project permits is a significant milestone for
both partners,” says Rob Krcmarov, executive vice-
president: exploration and growth for Barrick.
“As one of the largest undeveloped gold
deposits in the world, Donlin Gold represents
exceptional optionality within our portfolio. Now,
with key permits in hand, we can concentrate on
further exploring ways of reducing initial capital
and unlocking the value of this asset for all our
partners, in keeping with our deep commitment
to community engagement and environmental
stewardship,” says Krcmarov.
Donlin Gold has approximately 39 million ounces
of gold grading at 2.24 grams per tonne in the
measured and indicated resource categories (100%
basis). It hosts one of the largest and highest-grade
undeveloped opencast gold endowments in the
world. According to the second updated feasibility
study, once in production, Donlin Gold has the
potential to produce, on average, more than one
million ounces per year over a 27-year mine life on a
100% basis. The Donlin Gold project has substantial
exploration potential beyond the designed mine
footprint, which currently covers only three
kilometres of an approximately eight-kilometre-
long gold-bearing trend. Current activities at
Donlin Gold are focused on optimisation work and
community outreach.
Donlin Gold is an Alaska-based company
owned equally by NovaGold Resources Alaska,
and Barrick Gold, which are wholly owned
subsidiaries of Novagold Resources and Barrick
Gold Corporation, respectively. ASX-listed Zenith Minerals has received the
results of the first phase of a large ongoing
geochemical sampling campaign at the Tate
River gold project in North Queensland,
Australia.
Systematic soil sampling (700 samples) and
rock samples (16 samples taken by the soil
sampling crew) in this first round of work in the
north-east of the project area have confirmed the
presence of gold-bearing quartz veins and vein
breccia.
At the North East prospect, rock sample
results returned up to 2.1g/t gold with associated
high arsenic and antimony in colloform banded
quartz veins and quartz breccia hosted by
rhyolite, and schist, whilst wide-spaced (400m
× 100m) soil sampling returned high-order
gold results up to 0.2g/t gold. In addition,
rock samples taken at the Far North prospect
returned up to 1.7g/t gold, also with strong
arsenic and antimony hosted in quartz veins,
whilst a single rock sample of a quartz vein in
an area of soil cover 1.3km west of the Guppy
Strike Prospect returned 1.17g/t gold in
association with strong bismuth and tellurium.
According to the company, infill soil
sampling is planned to be completed at the
North East and Far North prospects soon.
Additional area of untested and open-ended
gold-bismuth-tellurium-copper soil anomalies
to the south-west of the Guppy Strike prospect
will also be sampled.
Donlin’s gold gets go-ahead
Italy
Gorno looks feasible
Phase one of the feasibility study for emerging zinc
company Alta Zinc’s Gorno project in northern
Italy should be completed soon. This is according to
a statement released by the company recently.
Alta Zinc states that the study, based on a
resource of 3.3 million tonnes (Mt) of 6.2% zinc
and lead, will outline the scope and economics of
resuming production at Gorno. Lycopodium and
AMC are assisting with the feasibility work. Alta
views the phase one development as a low-cost path
to start monetising Gorno.
[12] MINING MIRROR OCTOBER 2018
Tate sampling shows potential
Australia
Positive lithium Core results
Lithium developer Core Exploration has
announced a positive update on metallurgical
results achieved after the completion of a pre-
feasibly study (PFS) on the company’s Grants
deposit in Australia. These results are expected
to further enhance the robust economics
demonstrated by the PFS.
According to Stephen Biggins, MD at Core
Exploration, recent metallurgical test work on
core from the Grants deposit has delivered
outstanding results and supports the business
case for saleable concentrate from a simple dense
media separation (DMS) plant designed to use a
gravity only circuit.
The metallurgical test work completed to
date shows that Core can produce high quality,
spodumene concentrates with good recoveries
through a simple, low-capital cost DMS
processing circuit, therefore avoiding the much
higher capex requirements of a large flotation
circuit.
The high-grade lithium concentrate produced
by Core is showing to be of excellent quality
with low iron and low in other impurities being
premium characteristics for customers.