Jabal Sayid

Overview

The Jabal Sayid copper-gold-silver project is located in Saudi Arabia, 350 km north-east of Jeddah.

The Jabal Sayid deposit was discovered in 1965 by the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM) during a regional mapping program aided significantly by the presence of ancient mining activity including multiple pits and adits, together with ore and slag dumps.

The copper-gold-silver-zinc deposit is owned by Barrick Gold as a result of the acquisition of Equinox Minerals Limited in 2011.

The mining license for the project was granted in May 2010.

Proven & Probable reserves (Dec/09) were estimated at 24.4 Mt at 2.2% copper, 0.25 g/t gold, and 8.8 g/t silver for 540, 000 tonnes contained copper.

The plan is to open an underground mining operation that would have an 11 years mine life.

Average annual production from two of the four lodes identified to date is expected to be 2.6 Mtpa or 100-130 million pounds copper over the first full five years of operation at total cash costs of $1.50-$1.70 per pound.

The process plant would employ the flotation method and would produce approximately 240,000 tpa of copper sulphide concentrate.

Location

The mining project 120 km south-east of Madinah (Medina) and 35 km north of Mahd Adh Dhahab in Saudi Arabia. The Project is
accessed by a high quality, multi-lane, sealed expressway from Jeddah, followed by a sealed two-lane highway to within two kilometers of the project site. The major city of Jeddah and the port of Yanbu provides heavy industrial and port facilities. The Project is located reasonably close to the existing Ma‟aden Al Mahd mine, and the village of Mahd Adh Dhahab, which has a long history as a mining centre.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is an Islamic monarchy and occupies most of the Arabian Peninsula. The country is the world’s second
largest oil exporter.  Pre-Islamic mining works are scattered in many parts of the Arabian Peninsula but mining has never achieved the prominence that the oil industry managed to achieved in modern times.

The Jabal Sayid area is rich in archaeological resources with evidence of use of the site by humans extending back some 2,000 to 3,000 years. Evidence of early use of the site to exploit gold and then copper deposits has been recorded. Such evidence includes hill forts, old copper workings, dwellings and rock etchings.

In total eight archaeological features fall within the site application boundary. Of these only one will be directly affected, being a small cluster of features which may be unrelated and are in the location of the tailing management facility. 

The principal feature of cultural significance within the Project‟s general location is the Pilgrim‟s Cave. This is a designated location outside and to the east of the mining license boundary. The cave consists of an overhang of rock and is reported to have been used by pilgrims during journeys from Mecca to Madinah. 

Jabal Sayid is located on a rocky plateau at an elevation of 1,000 m. As a result, the summer temperatures are not as hot as the coastal or desert areas and the winters can be cool. There is little rainfall in the local area.

The region has a desert climate characterized by extreme heat during the day; an abrupt drop in temperature at night and slight, erratic rainfall.

About 50% of the area of the Exploration License consists of flat, sand-covered plains drained by wide, shallow wadis. The remainder consists of steep, rocky ridges that rise up to 125 m above the plain plateau.

The Project is situated in an area with low population  density. It has no intensive agricultural resources however the area is used for pastoral
grazing of sheep, goats and camels by a small number of Bedu.

Geology and Mineralization

The Jabal Sayid volcanic hosted massive sulphide (VMS) deposit is located within the Mahd Ahd Dhahab region within the Proterozoic Arabian Shield. The Arabian Shield is composed of crystalline continental crust made up of a number of separate volcanic arc terrains intruded by granite bodies and bounded by ultramafic ophiolites. 

Jabal Sayid is a proximal VMS system, with analogous deposits uncovered at both the Avoca (Ireland) and Mt. Lyell Mines (Tasmania).
Four separate mineralized lodes are observed at Jabal Sayid (Lodes 1 to 4), confined within a north-easterly 200 m – 700 m wide corridor and traced over a 1.2 km length. Base metal and precious metal mineralization is hosted by felsic volcanic rocks, which are in turn cross-cut by hypabyssal intrusions associated with a local paleovolcanic centre. Structural analysis suggests that these lodes are restricted to the western flank of a south-west plunging anticline.

Lode 1 mineralization is predominantly a chalcopyrite stockwork overprint on a massive sulphide, predominantly pyrite, but with significant sphalerite (zinc sulphide). Lodes 2 and 4 are dominated by chalcopyrite (copper-iron sulphide) rich stockwork mineralization. Lode 3 is
still essentially an exploration target.

Proven & Probable reserves (Dec/09) were estimated at 24.4 Mt at 2.2% copper, 0.25 g/t gold, and 8.8 g/t silver for 540, 000 tonnes contained copper.

Mining & Operation

Mining would be underground through the open stope mining method. 

The nominal production rate of 2.6 Mtpa is likely to be achieved in the early years when mining can take place in both Lodes 2 and 4. As the mining depth increases, and extends into the narrower parts of Lode 4, it is likely to become increasingly difficult to maintain the scheduled production rate. 

The company intends to develop Lode 1 as an open pit mining operation with pre-strip occurring in the second half of 2012 and production of ore commencing early 2013. This additional source of ore will reduce the risk of an ore feed shortage to the processing plant.

Two declines will provide access to the orebody and a loop haulage system will be established in the upper part of the mine. The existing decline will be refurbished to serve as the main haulage ramp and a second decline will be developed to provide a service way and a haulage truck loop for Lode 4. 

Primary stopes will be filled with cemented aggregate fill, with secondary and tertiary stopes filled with hydraulic fill comprising de-slimed flotation tails.

The two declines as well as two dedicated raises will be used for intake air and three dedicated raises will be developed for return air; and an escape way will be incorporated. 

Underground road trains loaded by chutes from the ore passes below each extraction level will be utilized in Lode 4.

Ore and waste development will be loaded on each level and ore is planned to be transported via an ore pass to a chute on a haulage level, from where it will be transported to a surface stockpile with 100 t capacity twin powered trailer road trains. Development ore and waste will be transported to surface by 30 t tipper trucks, which are the same trucks used as the prime mover for the road trains. 

Miming equipment also includes: Ground support - Tamrock DO7; IT930/50 with grout basket; Development & production loading: Elphinstone
R2900 and Elphinstone R1700; Haulage: GULF UG road trains; Drilling: Tamrock DL430 (76 mm & 89 mm); Cubex  ITHH 127mm & 142 mm.

Ancillary equipment include 1 x Gulf water cart; 1 x Gulf grader; 1 x Bulk ANFO truck; 1 x Normet Charmec ANFO loader; 1 x Normet Spraymec shotcreter; 1 x Compressor ITHH rig - 1500 cfm; 2 x Compressor ITHH Rig - 860 cfm; 11x Toyota LVs; 1 x Transit bus; 1 x Bobcat.

Water make in the mine is expected from groundwater inflow, service water and drainage from hydraulic sandfill placement. Two pump
stations will be installed to pump water out of the mine to near the surface backfill plant and the surface water dam.

Processing

The Jabal Sayid sulphide mineralization ranges from massive to disseminated and is dominated by chalcopyrite and pyrite. The ores are moderate to very hard and tend to have a slabby breakage when mined.

The process plant has been designed on the basis that the mining operations is intended todeliver 2.5 Mtpa, ramping up to 3.0 Mtpa of copper ore at a grade varying between 2.2% Cuand 3.0% Cu to the ROM pad, which is adjacent to the crusher installation. This ore will betreated in
the process plant to produce approximately 240,000 tpa of copper sulphide concentrate.

Unit processes of the process plant are:

-      Primary crushing of ore;

-      Wet grinding of ore in a semi-autogenous mill/ball mill/pebble circuit, also known as a SABC circuit;

-      Classification of the SABC circuit product using hydro-cyclones to provide fine grained feed with a P80 of 150 μm for the flotation circuit;

-      Sulphide flotation with regrinding of the bulk of the rougher concentrate to provide cleaner flotation feed with a P80 of 38 μm;

-      Dewatering of the sulphide flotation concentrate using a thickener followed by pressure filtration of the thickened concentrate to produce a saleable product for export;

-      Dewatering of the flotation tails using a thickener followed by pressure filtration to produce „dry‟ stackable tailings;

-       A backfill plant.

Equipment would include: 5.5 MW SAG 7.9m x 4.8m; 1,125 tph 5.5 MW Ball mill; 70 m3 Rougher flotation cells (7); 30 m3 cleaner
floatation cells (4); 30m3 cleaner scavenger cells (2); Thickener 20 m diam. (2); Ceramic disc filter (concentrate);

It is proposed that permanent power for the Project will be provided by a 33 MW diesel fueled power station located within the Mining Lease. Average load on the station is estimated to be between 21 MW and 24 MW. Diesel requirements are estimated at 55,000 m3 per annum.

It is proposed to truck water to the site from the City of Madinah, a distance of 150 km. Consideration is also being given to construction of a pipeline from Madinah to the project. Water conservation measures proposed for the project include evaporation barriers on ponds and filtering, and dry stacking of tailings. 

Potable water will be sourced separately and stored on-site in a potable water tank with nominally seven days storage.

Satellite connections would be used for communications. 

Other infrastructure facilities include administration offices, workshops, warehousing, roads, laydown areas, security and explosives magazine. Provision has also been made in the project design for on-site accommodation facilities for 590 persons with additional construction capacity as required. A short section of sealed access road is being constructed to the site from the main highway.

During normal operations a total workforce of 590 people is envisaged, of which approximately 290 will be contractors.

A three star camp will be established on site and will be subject to all the local laws and national security measures.

Environment & Community

The Project proposes to utilize treated waste water from Madinah for the process water and will not be directly extracting any water from the ground, so water depletion impacts due to abstraction are not expected. 

The Project is situated in an area with low population density and limited employment opportunities. It is envisaged that approximately 1,000 temporary jobs will be created during the construction phase with 500 permanent positions being created for the operational phase of
the Project.