Tag Archives: Coringa

Serabi Gold looks to repeat ore sorting success with COMEX system at Coringa

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Serabi Gold is planning for the start-up a second sensor-based sorting solution from COMEX as it looks to commence operations at its Coringa project, in Brazil.

The company confirmed in its June quarter results that construction of the classification plant was well underway at Coringa, with the crusher expected to be operational in August and the ore sorter remaining on track to being operational by the start of the December quarter.

A spokesperson for Serabi explained that the ore sorter being used is a COMEX OCXR-1000 model. This sorting unit is manufactured to sort a feed fraction +15 mm/-45 mm, with a maximum volume of 30-40 t/h. The stated maximum rejection rate is approximately 35% and it operates at a maximum belt speed of 2.7 m/s.

The COMEX OCXR-1000 is equipped for both X-ray sorting and colour sorting, with the latter using a 4K RGB camera. The whole unit at Coringa is within a single 13,500 x 3,500 x 2,900 mm (length/width/height) size envelope.

In a June corporate presentation, Serabi Gold said it is using ore sorters to remove waste and pre-concentrate run of mine material, as well as to liberate plant capacity. It noted the Coringa ore was highly amenable to ore sorting, with the company having carried out geological and metallurgical reviews and “pre-tested” its use at its Palito Complex, some 200 km from Coringa.

Since 2020, Palito has fed 40,891 t of material at 1.7 g/t Au through the same ore sorting system. This has generated 4,899 t of product at 8.8 g/t Au, with 35,992 t at 0.7 g/t Au rejected.

Coringa is viewed as a low-risk, low-cost operation, being a “carbon copy” of Palito, according to Serabi Gold. Palito was set to produce 38,000-40,000 oz of gold in 2024 from an operation made up of an underground selective open stoping mine, a 600 t/d conventional flotation, carbon-in-pulp, ore sorting operation. Coringa, meanwhile, is set to use a classification plant made up of a crusher and ore sorter to produce 38,000 oz/y of gold through an integrated flowsheet still in development.

Coringa dry stacking plan finds favour with state environmental agency, Serabi says

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With Serabi Gold having supplied all required data for a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on its Coringa gold project, in Brazil, to its independent consultants Global Resource Engineering Limited, CEO Mike Hodgson says the London- and Toronto-listed firm is now working hard on the permitting side.

Permitting a mine in Brazil – in particular the waste storage element – has become a lot trickier in the past few years following two major tailings dam collapses at iron ore mines in the country.

But, in the company’s June quarter results, Hodgson said Serabi was making good progress on permitting Coringa, a deposit that comes with 216,000 oz of indicated resources at an average in-situ grade of 7.95 g/t Au and inferred resources of 298,000 oz at 6.46 g/t.

He said: “The plan to replace a conventional tailings dam with installing a filtration plant allowing for the dry stacking of tails has been well received by the state environmental agency, SEMAS, who had already approved the original environmental impact assessment (EIA) on the basis of a conventional dam.”

The company is now completing an amendment to the EIA to reflect this design variation, he said, explaining that Serabi expects SEMAS to approve the amendment and, then, proceed with the necessary public hearings.

“We hope to be in a position to receive the Preliminary Licence during the second half of the year,” he said.

Coringa is located in north-central Brazil, in Pará State, 70 km southeast of the city of Novo Progresso.

Artisanal mining at Coringa produced an estimated 10 t of gold (322,600 oz) from alluvial and primary sources within the deep saprolite or oxidised parts of shear zones being mined using high-pressure water hoses or hand-cobbing to depths of 15 m, according to Serabi. Other than the artisanal workings, no other production has occurred at Coringa.

Serabi acquired Coringa from Anfield Mining on December 21, 2017, with management considering the asset to be very much a “carbon-copy” of Palito in terms of the geology, size and mining operations that will be used. The company’s Palito complex is made up of high grade, narrow vein underground mines that produce around 40,000 oz/y of gold.

The PEA on Coringa is still expected to be completed by the end of July, Serabi said.