Efemcukuru

The Efemçukuru project is located in western Turkey approximately 45 kilometres by road south of the city of Izmir at an elevation of approximately 700 metres.

It is a high grade epithermal hosted vein structure located in the Menderes Massive. Proven and probable reserves stand at 3,785,000 tonnes grading 10.04g/t gold for 1,221,000 oz gold, while the measured and indicated resources were estimated at 3,882,000 tonnes grading 11.20g/t and containing 1,397,000 oz gold.

The mine will operate at a production rate of 1,100 tonnes per day, producing an average of 112,400 ounces of gold annually, at a cash cost of $226/ounce, for a total of 1,056,000 ounces produced over a 10 years mine life.

Conventional trackless equipment will be employed to extract ore from mechanized cut-and-fill (MCF) as well as longitudinal longhole (LLH) and transverse longhole (TLH) stopes. Consolidated paste backfill will be placed in the stopes to act as a working floor for mining.

A twin internal ramp system located in the footwall will deliver ore to an underground crusher station. Crushed ore is then conveyed to surface storage bins by an inclined conveyor system. Underground mine production of 1,283 tonnes per day is based on a 6 day week.

Metallurgical method to be used consists of gravity concentration followed by flotation will achieve acceptable recovery of gold in the first stage. This will be followed by direct cyanidation of the flotation concentrate after regrinding to provide an overall gold recovery from ore of approximately 86.5%.

The concentrator will operate at 1,100 tonnes per day using a semi autogenous primary grinding mill followed by a ball mill for secondary grinding. Concentration of the gold after gravity treatment will be achieved through a flash cell in conjunction with rougher and cleaner cells.

Flotation concentrate will be transported by road for treatment at the Kisladag mine facility using a regrind mill and carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuit for final recovery of gold. Residue will be transferred to the Kisladag leach pad. Tailings from the Efemçukuru concentrator will be processed through a filtration plant to generate dry stack tailings for surface disposal.