Tag Archives: Asante Gold

Knelson concentrator, Gekko ILR set to boost gravity gold recovery at Asante’s Bibiani

Comminution of minerals, Mineral processing, Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, Precious metals, , , , , , , , ,

Asante Gold’s plan to bring the Bibiani mine in Ghana into production in the September quarter of 2022 remain on track after mobilising a contractor to refurbish the process plant and made plans to upgrade its gravity gold recovery equipment.

The company acquired the mine earlier this year from Resolute Mining, embarking on a journey to return the former operating mine to its past glories.

In a market update, Asante said all activities for the restart were on track.

“Asante is preparing a plan to deliver a mine that can produce approximately 190,000 oz of gold at Bibiani in its first 12 months of operation and circa 240,000 oz every year thereafter for a minimum of six years,” it said.

Tenders have been invited for the selection of a mining contractor, with mobilisation of said contractor expected to proceed in the March quarter of 2022.

At the same time, the process plant refurbishment is slightly ahead of schedule and on budget, the company said.

Harlequin International has been contracted to complete the refurbishment engineering procurement and construction management (EPCM) and has mobilised as scheduled. The full EPCM team, plus requisite complement of tradespeople, is on site to provide training, safety and project delivery systems and resources needed to ensure achievement of a safe and productive work environment, the company said.

Asante explained: “All work activities are proceeding as planned. Principal equipment motors and drives have been taken off site, to be serviced as needed. Electrical components, instrumentation and control systems have been tested and are being upgraded as needed to provide improved performance, above the original design.”

The company said gravity recovery equipment was being upgraded to “2020 level” of competence and automation. This includes the purchase of a new high efficiency “6G Knelson concentrator” (from FLSmidth) and Gekko ILR (InLine Leach Reactor).

Sub-contractors have been engaged to proceed with sand blasting, metal and pipework repair, painting, installation of liners and belts, and to ensure safe and efficient operation, Asante said.

“Equipment that is on site but that was not fully installed by the former owners is in the process of being made ready for operation,” the company added. “As of the last week of October, there are more than 200 workers on site. To date the project remains on budget.”

In July 2018, Resolute Mining, based on some 50,500 m of drilling, released an updated feasibility study for Bibiani reporting JORC compliant resources of 21.7 Mt at 3.6 g/t for 2.5 Moz of gold.

Asante Gold weighs up use of Anaconda Mining SMD narrow vein technology

Mineral exploration, Mining equipment, Mining project news, Mining services, Mining techniques, Precious metals, , , , , , ,

Asante Gold says it is reviewing a new mining technique, Sustainable Mining by Drilling (SMD), for use at its Kubi gold project in Ghana.

SMD is a two-stage drilling method that enables direct mining of narrow vein deposits. The technology is being developed and commercialised by Anaconda Mining, in collaboration with Memorial University of Newfoundland, and uses technology proven in other industries, Asante said.

Anaconda’s SMD technology placed second in the recent Goldcorp #DisruptMining challenge held on the sidelines of the annual Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada event in Toronto on March 3, 2019.

“This concept is a complete surface mining option with a drilling rig as a main surface piece of equipment used in conjunction with several field-proven downhole technologies,” Anaconda said.

The mining process is divided into two campaigns: drilling the pilot holes and accurately mapping the vein, then enlarging the pilot holes to predetermined sizes to recover the ore.

Using an inclined mast drilling rig, an inclined pilot hole is to be drilled along the centre line of the vein (equidistant between the hangingwall and footwall) with directional drilling system.

Steering the pilot holes live with a survey tool will determine the current orientation and refine the 3D model of the vein used to plan the pilot hole enlargement.

“Once the pilot hole has been drilled, progressively larger hole-openers can be used to drill along the pilot hole’s trajectory up to 2 m,” Anaconda said.

Anaconda said the SMD technology is a “disruptor” in that it reduces the cost to extract ore by 50% over conventional underground narrow mining techniques; it places the operator in a safe location on the surface; can access areas not open to conventional mining; reduces the environmental footprint; and by passes the crushing and grinding circuits by moving the +/-2 mm drill cuttings in a slurry direct to the mill.

Douglas MacQuarrie, President and CEO of Asante Gold, said: “The new SMD mining technique slashes the mining costs, development time and capital required to take near-surface gold deposits to production.

“Our Kubi Main Zone gold resource is located in one of the best and safest gold mining destinations in the world, is road and power accessible, has an average width of 2 m, is near vertical, and appears to be well suited for the application of this technique. Previous metallurgical tests on Kubi mineralisation gave 35% to 40% recovery of the contained gold by gravity concentration from a coarse grind, which suggest a similar recovery might be expected directly from the SMD drill cuttings, giving a potential source of early cash flow. We are looking forward to the development and commercialisation of the SMD technology and its potential application at Kubi.”