B2Gold studying expansion at El Limon
Vancouver-headquartered B2Gold is mulling an expansion at the El Limon mine, announcing on Monday that it is considering a $35-million investment to increase production at the Nicaragua-based mine.
B2Gold has concluded an expansion study, which indicates that increasing plant capacity from 485 000 t/y to 600 000 t/y and adding a third stage of milling to achieve a fine grind will result in a much longer mine life, with higher gold production and lower costs.
The company embarked on the expansion study following the discovery of the El Limon Central zone, which will provide long-term openpit feed to blend with underground ore.
The El Limon Central zone has a mineral resource of 5.13-million tonnes at a grade of 4.92 g/t, containing 812 000 oz of gold. Combined with the inferred mineral resources from underground, the study focused on about six-million tonnes at a grade of 4.3 g/t, containing about 829 000 oz.
B2Gold expects about 60% of the plant feed to come from openpits which have an overall strip ratio in the range of 16 t of waste to 1 t of mill feed. At the end of the mine life, plant feed is expected to come from the old tailings at a rate of 600 000 t/y.
The mineral resources from openpit and underground sources will provide a ten-year mine life and the processing of historic mine tailings – made possible by the third stage of milling – will result in an additional 11 years of mining.
The study estimates that yearly production will increase to about 75 000 oz/y in the ten years of underground and openpit mining and that an average of 18 000 oz/y of gold could be processed from tailings thereafter. Combined, El Limon will deliver about 985 000 oz of gold over 21 years.
The expanded mine will operate at direct cash operating costs below $600/oz and projected all-in sustaining costs (AISC) will reduce to about $900/oz.
In the second quarter of 2018, the El Limon mine produced 11 109 oz of gold at a cash operating cost of $893/oz and an AISC of $1 614/oz. The mine is forecast to produce between 50 000 oz and 55 000 oz in 2018.
The expansion study forecasts an after-tax net present value of more than $135-million at a 5% discount rate and a gold price of $1 300/oz, generates an after-tax internal rate of return of about 28%.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation