Kisladag

Overview

Kisladag gold mine is located in west-central Turkey on the western edge of the Anatolian Plateau. The mine began commercial production on July 1, 2006. It is an open pit, heap leach operation.

Infrastructure to support the mine includes an access road, a water well field with a 13-kilometer water pipeline, and a 30-kilometer power transmission line. Supplies and services are available in the city of Usak, 35 kilometers to the north. It is the largest gold mine in Turkey.

Kisladag is a standard open pit mining operation. Ore is processed in a standard heap leach facility containing a three-stage crushing circuit, an overland conveyor to the heap leach pad, mobile conveyors, and a stacker for placing the ore and a carbon adsorption facility (ADR plant) for recovering the gold. The carbon is treated on site in a refinery with the final product being gold dore bars.

In 2011, the mine placed 12.4 million tonnes ore on the leach pad and produced 285,000 ounces of gold at $374 per ounce cash cost.

In 2012, $175 million are going to be spent on commencement of the engineering works on the expansion project that would increase production to 25 million tonnes per year of crushed material plus 8 million tonnes per year run-of-mine material. The total cost for this project is $354 million and commissioning is expected during 2014. Once the expansion would be completed the estimated average gold production would reach 475,000 ounces per year.

Location

Turkey is an Eurasian country located in Western Asia (Anatolia Peninsula) and Southeastern Europe. Most of its population is Muslim.

Kisladag is located between the major centres of Izmir (180 kilometers to the west) and Ankara (350 kilometers to the northeast). Usak is the closest large population center, located 35 kilometers to the northeast, and access to the site is via all-weather paved roads servicing several small villages in the immediate area.

The mine sits on the western edge of the Anatolian Plateau, in gentle rolling topography, at an elevation of approximately 1,000 meters. The climate in this region is transitional between Mediterranean and Continental regimes and is characterized by warm dry summers and mild wet winters. Temperatures average 14°C for the year, varying from an average minimum of -3°C in January to an average maximum of 33°C in August. Annual rainfall is approximately 425 millimetres occurring mainly in the winter months.

Geology & Mineralization

The property consists of one pre-operating license covering an area of 15, 717 hectares. Mineral leases in Turkey are granted indefinitely as long as fees are paid on time.

Kisladag is located in one of several mid- to late-Tertiary volcanic complexes in western Turkey, related to subduction along the Hellenic Trench southwest of Turkey. In the Kisladag region, the volcanoes erupted onto a basement of schist at the northeast margin of the Menderes Massif.

The Kısladag deposit consists of porphyry-style gold mineralization centred on a series of overlapping sub-volcanic intrusives of quartz-syenite to quartz-monzonite composition.  Three mineralized and one post mineral intrusive bodies have been identified. Gold mineralization with traces of molybdenum, zinc, lead and copper encircles the late barren stock.  Oxidation is present and has been encountered up to 80 m in depth in the southern part of the deposit. The gold grades in the oxidized part of the deposit are lower than those of the primary ore.  Gold occurs in fine grains that are usually associated with pyrite, its oxidation products, or gangue.

Mining & Operation

The gold mine began commercial production in Q3 2006. The final open pit would be 1,250 m X 1,350 m and 580 m deep.

Ore and waste rock are drilled on a 5 m x 5 m pattern in ore with 1.5 m sub-drilling and a 152 mm hole, and 6.5 m by 6.5 m in waste with a 203 mm hole. Drilling productivities in ore and waste are estimated at 50 t/metre and 85 t/metre respectively. AN/FO blasting agent is be used in the pit except where wet conditions occur during heavy rains, in which case plastic liners are used down-the-hole to keep the blasting agent dry. On average, blasting is only carried out three to four times a week, and only on day shift.

Since the oxide, primary and waste rock have similar densities and hardness, loading productivities in ore and waste are similar and have been estimated at 9,940 tonnes per operating shift using 18 m3 wheel loaders and 136 tonne haul trucks. Haul roads have been designed with 10% gradients, except for the road to the waste dump, which have a 6% uphill grade. Haul distances will vary over the mine life from 450 m to 1,800 m for oxides, 100 m to 3,000 m for primary ore, and up to 4,300 m for waste. The mine fleet includes three track dozers, a wheel dozer and two graders for construction and maintenance of the bench roads, haul roads and the waste dump road.

Run of mine ore is hauled from the open pit and direct dumped into a primary 1300mm by 1750mm gyratory crusher with a design capacity of 1,653 tonnes per hour. The dump pocket has a capacity of 300 tonnes. The crushed ore is conveyed to a 300 tonne coarse ore bin and then on to the secondary crushers. The bin also feeds a 20,000 tonne stockpile when the crushers are not available.

The final crushed product is prepared in a circuit consisting of one scalping screen, one MP800 standard secondary cone crusher, one MP800 shorthead tertiary cone crusher and two fine ore screens. The capacity of the circuit is 827 tonnes per hour. Plans are currently in place to double capacity by installing a second parallel train between the gyratory crusher and overland conveyor. The coarse ore bin will be equipped with an additional reclaim feeder to facilitate the future installation. 

Mining equipment consists of:  Caterpillar 785 C Haul truck (18); Caterpillar D9 T Track dozer (2); Caterpillar 16 M Grader (2); Caterpillar 993 K Wheel loader (1); Caterpillar 834 H Wheel dozer (1); Hitachi EX-3600 FS Excavator (3); Atlas Copco ROC L6 Drill rig (PS) (1); Atlas Copco DM 45 Drill rig (2); Iveco Eurotracker Trailer-low bed (1); Mercedes Benz 4140B 8X4 Tire handler (1); Mercedes Benz 4140B 8X4 Water truck (3); Mercedes Benz 3340K 6X4 Fuel truck (1); Mercedes Benz 3340K 6X4 Maintenance truck (1); Mercedes Benz 3340K 6X4 Service truck-16 t crane (1); Mercedes Benz 3028K 6X4 Anfo charger truck (1); Land Rover Defender 130 4X4 Welding truck (1); CAT 330D LME Excav. with Atlas Copco HB 2200 Rock Breaker Backhoe / rock breaker (1).

The number of trucks would increase to 28 in the period 2017 to 2021. Four production rigs would be operating in 2012. Starting with 2014 a permanent pumping system and a rig for drilling depressurization holes will also be required.

Processing

Final product from the crushing and screening circuit is transferred to an overland conveyor via a radial stacker. This stacker has the capability to form a 7,000 tonne fine ore stockpile with a swing of 45 degrees. The fine ore is manually reclaimed from the pile by front-end loaders and reintroduced onto the overland conveyor belt via a hopper. Crushed ore is transported to the heap leach pad by an overland conveyor and a series of portable conveyors and a radial stacker places the ore onto the pad.

The heap leach pad facility employs a two part liner system of a compacted layer of low permeability soil with a 2 mm thick HPDE/LLDPE synthetic liner. The initial pad has a capacity of 15 million tonnes and sequential expansions to the pad will accommodate the total tonnage mined.

Solution application rate on the leach pad is 12 litres per hour per square metre of crushed ore. There are three 10,000 m3 process ponds to contain the heap leach solutions. The process ponds have a double HDPE liner and are fitted with leak detection pumps. The pond surfaces are covered with floating 100 mm diameter HDPE plastic balls in order to prevent bird access.

The gold adsorption facility (ADR plant) consists of two trains of carbon columns with each train consisting of five columns. Gold from the heap solutions is loaded onto the activated carbon and the carbon is removed periodically for treatment. The gold is recovered from the carbon in a standard process consisting of pressure stripping, electrowinning and smelting. The final product is gold doré bars suitable for final processing to 99.9% purity in an offshore refinery. 

Employees are mostly from the region.

Supplies and services are accessed from the city of Usak. The site is serviced by a water well field with a 13 km water pipeline, and a 25 km power transmission line.

Environment & Community

Numerous initiatives have been undertaken to enhance the well-being of the neighbouring community. The most notable of these initiatives is the installation of a water distribution system to the surrounding villages and settlements. The system consists of a central well, underground water lines, and reservoir tanks and delivers water to more than 1000 local residents in nine villages for the first time.

The company has also established the Kisladag Mine Foundation, an organisation which aims to deal with some of the social issues of the region as well as to promote sustainable development in the area. In addition, with the co-operation of the Canadian International Development Agency, a business plan has been developed that identifies initiatives that meet specific sustainable development criteria, including agriculture and training.

Eldorado has also funded a mobile health clinic -- a vehicle fully equipped with medical supplies that travels to local communities to provide an invaluable health resource for residents.