Overview
The Gurupi gold project is located in the state ofMaranhao,Braziland comprises mineral rights to 23 exploration licenses covering an area of approximately 111,000 hectares.
Gold was intermittently extracted from the project area since the 17th century. Modern exploration work commenced in 1994 and 1995. Newmont explored it in between 1997 and 2000; in 2003 it sold it to Kinross. In 2009 Jaguar Mining acquired the project from Kinross.
Rio Tinto holds a 0.75% NSR and Newmont retains a sliding scale NSR based on the price of gold.
Two open pit mines would exploit the Cipoeiro and Chega Tudor gold deposits.
Mining is proposed to begin in 2012 and over the 13 years life of mine some 1.9Moz gold would be recovered through means of flotation and cyanidation.
Two hundred people would be directly employed at the Gurupi mining operations.
Location
Brazilis bounded by theAtlantic Oceanon the east and other nations of the South American continent. It is the world's fifth largest country - larger thanAustralia. The official language is Portuguese and Catholicism is the predominant religion. The first European to land inBrazilwas Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500 who claimed the land for the king ofPortugal.
Gold was discovered in the project area in the 17th century. Over the last century garimpeiros – artisanal miners - intermittently mined the oxidized and weathered material and managed to produce an estimated 200,000 oz of gold.
Maranhao is a Brazilian state located in the northeast of the country and its capital city, the Sao Luis, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The 450,000 people city ofSao Luishas a strong infrastructure and hosts a national airport.
The Gurupi project is located some 500 km southwest of Sao Luis. The Cipoeiro deposit is 55 km and Chega Tudo deposit is 64 km off the BR316highway. The closest town that could provide supplies is the Maracacume located some 48 km northeast of the project area.
The Port of Itaqui is the largest cargo port in Brazil and would be used for supplying the mining operations.
The Gurupi River flows into the Atlantic Ocean and its basin hosts a tropical moist broadleaf forest.
The project area climate is equatorial with a wet season in summer (December to May).
While mining operations could be conducted year round the exploration activities are usually limited to the dry season. The average annual temperature near the Project site is about 26 deg C to 27 deg C.
The few hundreds of people of the communities of Cipoeiro and Chega Tudor are involved in gold digging, subsistence farming and livestock farming.
Geology
The Gurupi mineral deposits are considered to be typical of mesothermal vein-style, or orogenic-style gold deposits.
Region’s gold deposits are hosted by the Gurupi greenstone belt which most likely represented a foreland region that surrounded the calc-alkaline granitoids of the Sao Luis craton.
Gurupi gold deposits are hosted in structures associated with the strike slip sinistral Tentugal shear zone which is continuous for over 120 km and is up to 30 km in width.
Gold is not visible but hosted by auriferous pyrites.
The Project encompasses two gold (Chega Tudo and Cipoeiro) situated at a 10-km distance from each other.
Gold mineralization at the Chega Tudor is hosted by a dacite metavolcanic unit which is well foliated and displays 1-2mm stretched quartz eyes and mylonitic bands. Gold is associated with quartz–sericite–pyrite alteration. Surficial weathering has completely destroyed the original mineralogy and textures, forming saprolitic clay to depths as great as 40 m with an average of approximately 25 m.
At the Cipoeiro deposit the main host rock is a tonalite intrusive which is also weathered to depths of 5m to 30m. Gold is associated with pyrite and quartz sericite alteration in a foliated tonalite setting.
Total probable mineral reserves were estimated at 63.75 Mt at 1.14 g/t gold for 2.3 Moz.
Mining
The deposits of Chega Tudor and Cipoeiro would be mined by open pit mining methods over a 13 year life of mine (LOM).
The weak saprolite zone will be mechanically excavated and the bedrock would be drilled and blasted.
Mining contractors would be used for stripping and waste disposal of 20 Mt during years 2, 10 and 11. Strip ratio is estimated at 1:3.94.
An owner production fleet would comprise: Two CAT 992 K Front-End Loaders; Three Liebherr-R984C Excavators; Seventeen CAT 777F Haul Trucks; Four Sandvik DP1500i Hydraulic Rock Drills; One PW 5000 Pneumatic Rock Drill; Two Lubrication Trucks; Three Water Trucks; One CAT 416E Backhoe Loader; Two CAT 16M Motor Grader; Two CATD9T Bulldozers; One CAT 834 H Wheel Dozer; One Truck Crane; Five Pickups; Four Portable Light towers; Four Pumping Systems.
The mine would produce 13,700 tpd ore for a total of 63.75 Mt ore over the LOM.
Mining is proposed to begin in 2012 with pre-stripping of 7 Mt of waste from the
Cipoeiro pit region. The Cipoeiro open pit would be mined for the first 8 years and then mining would move on to the Chega Tudor deposit.
Pumps would be able to dewater 200m3/h for each pit.
Processing
The processing plant is scheduled to start up in January 2013 and over a three year period would ramp up production to 5Mt per year.
It is estimated that some 1.9Moz gold would be recovered over the LOM. The estimated Mill Feed grade is 1.10 g/t.
Two mineral processing routes had been chosen for the treatment of different types of ore: crushing, grinding, and flotation; and, cyanide leaching, CIP recovery, electrowinning.
Process equipment list include: Hopper for ROM (Primary Crusher) (1); Grizzly (1); 450 tph 300HP Primary Jaw Crusher (1); 1410 tph 2-Deck Primary Banana Screen; 300 t Hopper for Secondary Cone Crushers (1); 60HP Vibrating Feeders (2); 580 tph 600HP Secondary Cone Crusher (2); 1520HP Belt conveyors (12); 200t Hopper for HPGR (1); 650 tph 5,900HP HPGR; 1200t 150HP 2-Deck High-Frequency Secondary Vibrating Screen (2); 200HP HPGR Slurry Pumps (2); VTM-1500 7500HP Vertimills (grinding) (5); VTM-1500 4500HP Vertimills (regrinding) (3); 8 x 26†Cyclones Cluster (grinding) (1); 6 x 15†Cyclones Cluster (regrinding); 100HP Water Pumps (4); 1000HP Mill/Cyclones Slurry Pumps (6); 225HP Drainage Pumps (3); 75ft. diam. 15HP Flotation HC Thickener (1).
Power will be delivered from a substation located some 40 km away. Water would be pumped from theGurupiRiverat a 300m3/h rate and it would be transported by a 14 km pipeline to the mine site.
