DRA has recently secured a significant contract at the Ad Duwayhi gold mine with Saudi Arabia’s largest mining group, Ma’aden Gold and Base Metals (MGBM). This is the Saudi company’s newest gold project, and is located some 450 km southwest of Riyadh and roughly the same distance northeast of Jeddah. The location has presented some major challenges for MGBM, for example the sourcing water required the construction of a 500 km pipeline to carry water from the nearest municipality to this remote area of the desert between Riyadh and Taif.
The mine is an open pit and the operation includes a conventional gold extraction process plant with crushing and milling facilities, gravity concentration and smelting facilities to produce gold doré on site. The gravity-CIL plant was built by the Chinese company Hanwha Engineering and Construction. That contract included completing detailed engineering, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning, commissioning, start-up assistance and training services.
DRA says: “For the first time MGBM has opted to engage the services of an outsourced minerals processing company to operate and maintain the plant as well as upskill the local staff. Although the concept of operations outsourcing is new to the mining industry in Saudi Arabia, it has become a well-established practice in Southern Africa and Australia as the reduction in operating costs can be significant. DRA’s operations division in Southern Africa, Minopex, has been operating and maintaining plants since 1996. Ma’aden visited several Minopex operated plants in South Africa to gain a better understanding of the concept and to gain comfort in the outsourced approach.”
“The award of this contract is a major step forward for DRA in Saudi Arabia”, commented Rashid Kader, a Minopex veteran of 15 years who has been appointed Managing Director of the newly formed DRA Saudi Arabia LLC. “Our office in Saudi Arabia will be based in Jeddah – over and above being able to service MGBM at the Ad Duwayhi mine, this new entity also gives us a crucial foothold in a region rich in minerals.
“Right now, we’re in the process of deploying a highly experienced team of DRA specialists to Saudi Arabia. Their responsibilities will include pre-commissioning the plant and establishing the operations team on site. The operations team will be responsible for process engineering, specialist maintenance, asset management safety and training”.
Engr. Khalid Al Mudaifer, Ma’aden President and CEO, said, in 2013: “The plant will process approximately 2 Mt/y of ore from the adjacent open pit mine, and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2014. It is estimated the Ad Duwayhi mine will produce approximately 180,000 oz/y of gold and more than 1.6 Moz over the life of the mine.” The Ad Duwayhi operation is a key part of Ma’aden’s program to develop several new gold mine facilities in the central western region of Saudi Arabia which contains much of the Kingdom’s gold rich ore deposits.
