Antioquia Gold Inc recently provided a summary of September 2020 production results for its Cisneros gold mining operation in Colombia which included some news of a major narrow vein mining fleet investment. The project is located in the central portion of the department of Antioquia, roughly 55 km northeast of Medellin.
During September 2020 1,873 troy ounces of gold were produced at Cisneros. An average of 733 t per day were processed with a recovery of gold to concentrate of 97.1% during the month. The same mointh, 1,080 t with an average gold grade of 12.71 g/t were purchased from third parties, representing 23% of monthly production. In the plant some issues with new pumps installed for the expansion made it difficult to achieve the scheduled treatment rate for the month, however these difficulties have now been overcome and currently the processing rate is close to 1,000 dry metric tonnes per day.
“As we anticipated, production for the month decreased slightly due to mechanical issues in the process plant and the low mechanical availability of the mining equipment. The difficulties in the process plant have already been overcome and we are reinforcing the current mining fleet with eight new units of equipment that will allow us to reach the production goals we have projected,” stated Gonzalo de Losada, President and CEO of Antioquia Gold.
The company has selected Cat dealer, Soledad-based Relianz Mining Solutions to provide a new fleet of Resemin and Cat underground mining equipment with favourable financing terms. Delivery and commissioning of equipment is taking place over the next four months. Relianz stated: “From the Cisneros project, our client Antioquia Gold launches its first Muki of the allied brand Resemin. Through this important alliance Relianz Mining Solutions delivers to underground operations versatile equipment designed to meet the challenges of our Colombian geology.”
Resemin told IM that Antioquia Gold has chosen the Muki FF and the SFL35 LHD as key machines in its new production fleet for Cisneros. A total of seven Resemin machines were ordered, including its two boom Troidon 66XP drilling jumbo. “With over 135 units sold, the Muki has established itself as the most popular jumbo for narrow vein mining. The Muki comes in several types such as Muki FF for face drilling, three different models for production long hole and Muki Bolter for roof bolting in very small sections. Another important milestone in this narrow mining niche has been the launch of our scoop SFL35 which comes with a tramming capacity of 3.5 t and a width of 1.4 m.”
The SFL35 is significant as it is the first locally made design of the Schopf, Germany mining LHD product line after the Peruvian company took over all of Schopf’s activities outside of Europe from owner Goldhofer in 2017. This included all non-European production operations as well as international sales and service.
