Sino Gold, an Australian based gold producer with a focus on China, received the Development of the Year Award for its White Mountain gold mine, at the China Mining Congress – the country’s largest international mining conference. Sino Gold’s Chief Executive Officer, Jake Klein, on receiving this award, said: “Many people have contributed to the development of White Mountain and this award provides some recognition of their efforts. The award also recognises the project’s high standards of safety, environment and community relations. The strong support of local and provincial government agencies contributed enormously to the successful development of the project.”
White Mountain is located 230 km south-southeast of Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province in northeast China. Sino Gold owns 95% of the project and the surrounding 128 km2 exploration licences. A major northeast trending regional fault zone hosts the gold mineralisation at White Mountain, with mineralisation known to extend 1.5 km along strike. Mineral resources total 12.4 Mt at 3.0 g/t gold, containing 1.2 Moz gold, and ore reserves total 6.5 Mt at 3.8 g/t gold, containing 784,000 oz.
White Mountain is primarily comprised of an underground mine and a CIL processing plant. Gold production averaging 65,000 oz/y is planned to result from design mill throughput of some 650,000 t/y and overall gold recoveries averaging 80%. Production is expected to ramp up to these levels during 2009.
Sino Gold has signed two landmark agreements forming partnerships that are complementary to its existing environment and community programs. Commenting on this, Sino Gold Chief Executive Officer Jake Klein said: “The first partnership is with the University of Sydney and the Guizhou Provincial Environmental Protection Authority. This initiative is aimed at providing government officers with an in-depth understanding of sustainable development policies and practices. The second is a community development program with the Zhenfeng County Government. This initiative marks the first partnership of its type between any mining enterprise and county government in China. These two important partnerships are further evidence of Sino Gold’s unique and sustainable approach to the exciting and rapidly evolving gold industry in today’s China.”
The goal of the Guizhou Environmental Management for Sustainable Development Leadership Project is to contribute to sustainable economic and social development of Guizhou Province with the focus on enhancement of environment and natural resources management policies and practices. The five-year project comprises five 13-day training programs that are to be conducted in Guizhou Province, China and Sydney, Australia. It is envisaged that more than 125 Guizhou government officers will participate in the program, thus creating a pool of experienced public sector managers with in-depth understanding of environmentally-sustainable policies and practices and strong management skills.
Robyn McConchie, Director of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific at the University of Sydney, commented: “We look forward to working with Sino Gold and many Guizhou government officers over the coming five years. The leaders trained by this innovative initiative are likely to provide a variety of long-term benefits to Guizhou Province.”
Sino Gold’s Jinfeng mine and the Zhenfeng County Government, Guizhou Province have signed a Sustainable Community Development Cooperation Agreement for a three-phase sustainable community development program over the next ten years. This initiative is aimed at helping the three administrative villages (Lannigou, Jinshan and Niluo) near the Jinfeng Mine realize sustainable social and economic development, and explore an effective, sustainable model for the Chinese mine sector. Projects will include education, health and sanitation, environment, and agriculture production, as well as capacity building for community-based organizations and farmers.
As part of this initiative, Zhenfeng County’s Poverty Alleviation Office (PAO) will be the lead government agency and has committed to providing “whole village promotion programs”. Together, these partners will positively impact approximately 3,400 people, most of whom are Buyi ethnic minority.
A Community Development Department has been established at Jinfeng Mine and it is the first such department in Guizhou Province. With technical support from the community-based Conservation and Development Research Centre at Guizhou Normal University, the department will facilitate collaboration with a range of government agencies, the business and non-government organisation sectors, Jinfeng Mine employees and the three administrative villages.