PROSPECTS SHINE FOR SUNRISE DAM
Production at Sunrise Dam dropped 11pc mid-year, but AngloGold Ashanti anticipates a quick turnaround with a new underground mining management system to improve efficiency on site.
ANGLOGOLD Ashanti’s assets have performed well in 2019, with overall production increasing by 7pc in the first quarter from 801,000oz from 752,000oz – despite a drop in production at Sunrise Dam in WA.
At Sunrise Dam, production was 11pc lower at 136,000oz for the first six months ended June 30, 2019, compared to 153,000oz during the same period last year.
The drop in production was due to a lower mill feed grade and lower metallurgical recovery from the ore mined.
The drop at Sunrise Dam, plus lower grades and plant throughput from the company’s Siguiri asset and a planned production decrease at the Cerro Vanguardia site, was partially offset by strong improvements from Kibali, Iduapriem, Geita and Tropicana.
Chief executive officer Kelvin Dushnisky said that the company was expecting an especially strong fourth quarter with the gold price averaging around $1414/oz as of August 4, 2019.
“While we’ve seen a rally in the gold price, this will not diminish our focus on improving free cash flow and returns through active portfolio management and strict capital discipline,” Mr Dushnisky said.
“Tight cost management will continue to be a key driver for us.”
The company transitioned from a particularly high grade, coarse-gold zone within Midway Shear that had a high metallurgical recovery in 2018, to ore development from the Vogue ore body at the start of 2019.
The Vogue ore body is expected to increase feed grade and recovery rates to REP feasibility study levels and would account for about two thirds of underground ore production for 2019.
Overall, Australian assets performed positively, producing 316,000oz at a total cash cost of $704/oz in the first half of 2019, compared to 306,000oz at a total cash cost of $790/oz in the first half of last year.
All In Sustaining Costs (ASIC) for the same period was $939/oz compared to $1052/oz in the first half of last year.
Improving efficiency
Operational efficiency is expected to improve at Sunrise Dam going forward, with the company focused on targeting high-grade ore and using a new underground mining management system to incorporate more remotely controlled services.
Underground operations are contracted to Barminco, whose Sandvik and CAT loader fleets operate with ControlMaster Guidance Automation.
These have now been fitted with enhancements including Multiple Machine Selection ( MMS) and Multiple Machine Control (MMC) – cutting edge technology which gives an operator control of numerous mobile machines from the one station.
RCT automation and control product manager Brendon Cullen, who installed the technology, said it allowed one operator to tram one machine, while digging with another to make the process more efficient.
“Before the introduction of these features, one operator would only be able to concentrate on the activity of one mobile machine,” Mr Cullen said.
“The new features allow them to attend to multiple machines safely and effectively thanks to guidance automation which will keep the machine on the correct path, to avoid machine damage and to ensure faster tramming.”
RCT’s Bridge communication network allowed the mine’s work area to be digitised to support the autonomous features and acted as a stepping stone to integrate into the site’s existing system.
Area Access Control ( AAC) units have also been deployed as an extension of the automation control centre and interface between the work areas and machines.
“These lightweight, cost effective and portable solutions are the ideal alternative to installing a cabin on site,” Mr Cullen said.
The site has also been using MinLog’s MineSuite system since mid-2018, which enables management, geologists, mining engineers, shift supervisors and operators to schedule, track, monitor and control operations.
A key component of this is the Distributed Store and Forward (DSF) technology – which finds the quickest path between equipment and server via a combination of access points and on-board field computer equipment – and safeguards the system against communications black spots.
Essentially this results in agility around activity planning and management, short interval control, task management and equipment allocation, material tracking and certification, proximity detection and traffic management, and ventilation control.
At Sunrise Dam and Tropicana, AngloGold Ashanti is trialling autonomous drilling which has the potential to improve drill productivity by about 15pc, reducing the number of drills and operators required from 2020 if the trial is successful.
Autonomous drilling is expected to reduce wear, extend drill bit life and improve utilisation of the equipment, and – like the underground management system – is designed to increase overall efficiency and productivity on site.
Exploration options
During 2018, AngloGold Ashanti earned a 51pc interest in the Butcher Well/Lake Carey exploration joint venture tenements, where there is potential for the discovery of an additional ore reserve for processing at Sunrise Dam – possibly displacing low-grade stockpiles currently being blended with underground ore.
AngloGold Ashanti Australia has the right to earn up to 70pc interest from Saracen Mineral Holdings by spending up to $25m on exploration in the tenements, which are located approximately 22km from Sunrise Dam.
In the first half of 2019, a total of 26,284m of Air Core (AC) drilling was completed in the 100pc owned Laverton district; AC drilling at the Bismark prospect, 10km south of Sunrise Dam, highlighted three new coherent gold anomalies; while AC drilling at the Ahab prospect delineated NNW-trending zone of anomalous gold extending about 1km on strike.
AC drilling lines at the Cleveland prospect, a new regional target, intersected several anomalous gold intercepts associated with anomalous Ag, Pb and Zn.
Infill AC drilling and DD are planned at all three prospects during the third quarter of the year.
Brownfields exploration activities for the period included a regional gravity survey, covering all tenements within the Sunrise Dam Combined Reporting Group.
Drilling programs at Sunrise Dam completed a total of 70,112m and a total of 90 significant intercepts were reported: 53 from Vogue, 11 from Cosmo East, 18 from Midway Shear and Midway Shear Steeps, one from Carey Shear Zone, one from MLE3, five from Regional EIS drilling and one from Sunrise south.
The results included an extension of Vogue mineralisation south of the current Indicated Mineral Resource, over an approximate 200m strike length, continuity of mineralisation along a low angle structure between the Vogue domain and Carey Shear Zone and mineralisation 600m to the south of the mine, suggesting the continuation of the Vogue orebody.
The site is evaluating paste fill options to support production from wider sections of the large Vogue ore body and to improve mining flexibility going forward.
GR Engineering Services Limited (GRES) is an ASX-listed process design and engineering company providing fixed price EPC and EPCM project delivery services to the mineral and resource processing industry internationally.
GRES helped deliver the Sunrise Dam Gold Recovery Enhancement Project for AngloGold Ashanti Australia (AngloGold), having previously completed the feasibility study work which established the viable pathway for development of the project, which was delivered on time and on budget.
GRES is proud to have assisted AngloGold in the delivery of the project, where sulphide mineral recovery and ultra-fine grinding unit processes have been incorporated into the process plant to consistently increase gold recovery.
The High Intensity Grinding ( HIG) mill installed is the largest unit of its type currently operating in Australia.
GRES has successfully completed feasibility studies, process and engineering designs and construction for projects of various scale covering a diverse range of metalliferous and mineral commodities.
The company has delivered mineral processing or hydrometallurgical facilities and infrastructure for precious metals, base metals, mineral sands, industrial minerals, tin, tungsten and iron ore projects for a range of clients, both in Australia and internationally.
The innovative engineering solutions developed by GRES enable its clients to confidently move into development with the knowledge that the outcomes from study work will be replaced in the operation of their projects.
GRES also has a presence in the hydrocarbons industry via its wholly owned subsidiary, Upstream Production Solutions.
Upstream is a leading provider of operations, maintenance and well management services to the oil and gas industry in Australia and South East Asia.
ANGLOGOLD Ashanti and the Sunrise Dam mining operation are committed to minimising waste and pollution.
The successful management of environmental performance allows the Sunrise gold mining operations to make appropriate efforts to remain compliant with strict regulatory demands.
The environmental team at Sunrise quickly realised that managing vast amounts of monitoring data and complex compliance criteria in spreadsheets was no longer realistic.
In 2009, MonitorPro was selected to professionally and effectively manage the site’s environmental data.
By adopting a professional solution, Sunrise Dam now has full control of monitoring data, saving time on data validity, compliance checking and reporting, by automating a risky process that could have rendered serious fines if mishandled.
The environmental team on- site can rest easy with confidence that all environmental data is in order and that any missed data or compliance breaches are identified early on.
The MonitorPro solution at Sunrise Dam is the same AngloGold Ashanti is using at Tropicana; in fact, MonitorPro is the most commonly used environmental data management solution in the mining industry, worldwide.
About MonitorPro
The complete, professional environmental data monitoring solution, MonitorPro is the IT solution trusted by environmental teams worldwide to manage environmental compliance and data collection. MonitorPro is a web-based or locally hosted solution for the collation of all sources of environmental data, where it is generated by loggers, laboratories, weather stations, calculations or other data repositories.
Since 1996, world-leading UK based software company EHS Data’s versatile software solution has helped organisations save time, improve planning, quality control, site analysis and reporting to manage environmental obligations and sustainability.
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