Modern Mining July 2015

MINING News

True Gold’s Karma site now a hive of activity

over 500 focusing on earthworks and the processing plant final assembly. We have progressed rapidly with site development and construction, highlighted by commissioning of the mine fleet, completion of the raw water pond excavation and ini- tial construction of the raw water pipeline.” Excavation of the Pregnant Leach Solution (PLS) pond has commenced, stripping of Cell 1 of the heap leach pad has been completed and assem- bly of the hard rock crusher has begun. Assembly of the Absorption, Desorption and Refining (ADR) plant structural steel has also started. The mine fleet of six Komatsu 785 trucks, a PC 3000 excavator and a WA800 loader has been commissioned. Located 185 km north of Ouaga­ dougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, Karma is a technically simple open-pit, heap leach mine which will produce an average of 97 000 ounces a year over an eight- and-half-year mine life (although further phases of development are anticipated). The project has a capex of US$131,5 mil- lion with the estimated payback period being just 16 months. South Africa’s SENET is the EPCM contractor. 

Construction underway at Karma late last year. The site has progressed considerably since then (photo: True Gold).

Canada’s True Gold Mining Inc, listed on the TSX-V, which is developing the Karma gold project in Burkina Faso, reports it has drawn down an additional US$14 mil- lion of the US$100 million financing from Franco-Nevada (Barbados) Corporation and Sandstorm Gold Bank Ltd. This is the third draw down that True Gold has made under the facility, bringing the total

amount drawn to US$71,6 million. True Gold says that construction at Karma remains on schedule with the planned placing of ore on the heap leach pads in early 2016 and first gold pour anticipated for the end of Q1-2016. Christian Milau, President and CEO of True Gold, stated, “There is an atmosphere of excitement on site with a workforce of

Diesel Power awarded Elandspruit contract

Wescoal Mining has appointed Diesel Power Open Cast Mining as the mining contractor for its new Elandspruit mine near Middelburg in Mpumalanga. Mining activities have com- menced and Elandspruit will produce its first Run of Mine during July 2015. The mining division is on track to produce approximately 335 000 tons of Run of Mine (ROM) per month during the final quarter of the current financial year. This is equivalent to approximately 4 Mt ROM on an annualised basis. TheWater Use Licence for Elandspruit was secured early this year and the official open- ing of the mine will take place in August. The facility will eventually double Wescoal’s mining output and is fundamental to the continued growth, sustainability and profit- ability of the Group with 80 per cent of its production supplied to Eskom through long- term contracts. 

Employees receive training on one of the newly commissioned Komatsu 785 haul trucks. The mine has a fleet of six of the trucks (photo: True Gold).

6  MODERN MINING  July 2015