VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Triple-listed OceanaGold has started milling operations at the Haile gold mine, in South Carolina, re-establishing the historic goldfield with a modern mining operation.
Since acquiring the project at the end of 2015 through the C$856-million acquisition of Canadian project developer Romarco Gold, Melbourne-based OceanaGold set and achieved a firm timeline of key milestones, culminating in the start of milling ore at year-end as planned.
“We have established a strong team in South Carolina that include technical experts from across our business to carryout commissioning activities and transition to operations. Achieving this important benchmark in just 15 months since taking ownership of Haile is a true testament to the leadership and dedication of our team,” stated president and CEO Mick Wilkes.
Early in October, the company started dry commissioning by focusing initially on the crushing circuit and emergency stockpile system. Since then, the team has commissioned the grinding, carbon-in-leach and tailings circuits to treat oxide and transition ores. Further, OceanaGold advised that construction of the flotation and fine grinding circuits are now complete and commissioning of these circuits to treat sulphide ore is planned to occur over the next couple of weeks
The TSX-, ASX-, and New Zealand-listed company currently has about 675 000 t of ore stockpiled on surface, including 275 000 t grading 2.3 g/t of sulphide ore, 245 000 t grading 0.6 g/t of oxide ore and 155 000 t grading 1.1 g/t of transitional material.
OceanaGold expects to produce between 150 000 oz and 170 000 oz of gold at Haile in 2017, at sector leading all-in sustaining costs between $500/oz to $550/oz. OceanaGold is currently also working on a Haile expansion study, with results expected in the middle of 2017.
Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter
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