TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Following a hiatus of several months, Canadian project developer True Gold on Tuesday announced that it had restarted construction of its flagship Karma gold project, in Burkina Faso, with the aim of pouring first gold in March next year.

The Vancouver-based firm reported that it was currently busy with a site clean-up and repair programme, with a ramp-up to full construction set for the end of the month.

Specific activities planned in the coming weeks included remobilising and commissioning the mine fleet, ordering liners and piping and surveying ponds and other locations. The local workforce would be re-engaged as construction accelerated.

True Gold and the Burkina Faso government would continue extensive communication and discussion with community leaders through a reconstituted Community Liaison Committee.

The company reiterated that the $131.5-million mine remained fully funded through construction to first gold pour. True Gold had $31-million in cash and up to $62-million under its finance facility with about $70-million of project cost remaining. The company reported that it continued to have full support from its partners, Franco-Nevada and Sandstorm Gold.

SITE DAMAGE
True Gold temporarily suspended construction activities at its Karma project in January, after several hundred members from two surrounding communities, Ramatoulaye and Namissiguima, had marched on the mine, threatened employees and damaged equipment.

Damage to equipment and site infrastructure amounted to about $6.1-million.

As prescribed under applicable Burkina Faso labour laws, True Gold formalised a technical shutdown of the project in March, which enabled it to preserve capital in the near term and resume construction quickly and efficiently, while still providing staff with a source of income.

Despite reassurances from the company, locals were concerned about potential damage to a mosque, 1.18 km from the edge of the Rambo pit, as well as other buildings in the neighbouring town of Ramatoulaye. They were also concerned about the negative effects the pit could have on dust, noise and groundwater quality in the community.

The company was engaged in productive and ongoing discussions with diverse working groups that included government leaders, traditional authorities, religious groups and local businesses. The groups were also taking an active role in dealing with a small fringe element largely responsible for the unrest in January.

KARMA FEASIBILITY
The feasibility study completed on the Karma project supported a heap-leach mine scenario from currently defined openpit deposits, containing 949 000 oz of probable mineral reserves.

The heap-leach pad was designed to process oxide and transition ore from the five shallow pits, with a small amount of leachable sulphide ore extracted from two pits.

The two pits with the highest-grade mineral reserves would be mined first, allowing for rapid payback and strong cash flow from the outset of commercial production.

About 113.8-million tonnes of material would be mined from the five openpits over the estimated project life. This would deliver an estimated 33.2-million tonnes of ore to the process facility and 80.6-million tonnes of waste to storage facilities located near each pit. The overall strip ratio for the project is 2.43:1, with mining being conducted 350 days a year by an owner-operated fleet at total material movement rates ranging from 35 000 t/d to 45 000 t/d.

Conventional truck and shovel methods were likely to be used. Two 200 t hydraulic excavators, configured in backhoe mode, would load a fleet of ten 90 t trucks to transport ore and waste to the primary crusher and respective near-pit waste dumps.

Four additional 90 t trucks would deliver ore directly from the pits to the process facilities without the need for ore rehandling.

The soft nature of the openpit ore and waste material would allow for free-digging (excavated without blasting) of the bulk of the material.

Twenty-five per cent of the transition ore and all the sulphide ore material would be drilled and blasted at low powder factors. This comprised only about 10% of the total material to be excavated during the mine life.

The Karma project’s process design was based on using conventional heap-leach technology, with a production capacity of four-million tonnes a year. Mined ore would be crushed, agglomerated and conveyed to the leach pad, where it would be stacked in two 10 m lifts and irrigated with a diluted cyanide solution. Gold dissolved by the cyanide would then be adsorbed onto activated carbon in a carbon-in-column circuit. The loaded carbon would then be stripped of the gold using a Zadra-type elution and the resulting product would be subjected to electrowinning and smelting to produce doré on site.

The mine would produce an average of 97 000 oz/y of gold over a mine life of 8.5 years.

Karma had an after-tax net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of  $178.2-million and an after-tax internal rate of return of 43.1%, with payback estimated after 1.4 years.