Modern Mining May 2016

MINING News

“With Esaase about two years away from production, we will look to advance develop- ment of the satellite pits, as well as continue our near-mine exploration programme to find additional resources to keep the mill full until Esaase is brought online.” Phase 2A will develop the Esaase pit, min- ing the oxide portion of the mineral reserve to provide an additional 2 Mt/a of material which will be blended with 3 Mt/a of the Nkran fresh ore and processed through the existing pro- cessing facility, which will be upgraded. Development will include construction of mining and crushing infrastructure and a 27 km overland conveyor belt to transport the ore to the existing processing facility. Brownfield modifications will upgrade the existing processing plant capacity from 3 Mt/a up to 5 Mt/a. The upgrades to the processing Diamcor granted Water Use Licence Diamcor Mining Inc, listed on the TSX-V, has announced that its application for a Water Use Licence (WUL) to support long-term dia- mond mining operations at its Krone-Endora at Venetia project has been approved and granted by the South African Department of Water and Sanitation. “We are very pleased to have successfully secured this WUL for the project,” says Dean H Taylor, CEO of Diamcor. “The granting of the WUL represents the culmination of a multi- year effort in the ongoing advancement of our project, marks the achievement of yet another significant milestone, further de-risks the project, and most importantly, provides us with the desired allocation of water to support the targeted design capacity of the processing facilities installed at the project for the long-term.” The WUL allows the company to extract 410 148 m 3 of water per year from seven bore- holes, with that amount aimed at supporting the project’s envisioned long-term processing target of 300 000 tons per month. Diamcor anticipates that, upon completion of the additional infrastructure related to the WUL, the resulting additional water resources will enable it to complete the testing and evaluation of the full targeted design capac- ity of its processing facilities and to compile key data from these higher processing rates which will assist it in arriving at an initial production decision.  

ores and expand the processing facility with the construction of an additional 5 Mt/a milling and flotation plant for the exclusive processing of Esaase fresh ores. Production is expected to exceed 480 000 oz/a from 2022 onwards, with total processing capacity of 10 Mt/a (3 Mt/a from Nkran and 7 Mt/a from Esaase). The capital cost is expected to be approximately US$150 to US$170 million and development of Phase 2B will be staggered so that the capital cost will be funded from cash flow. 

facility that were originally envisioned to expand capacity from 3 Mt/a to 3,8 Mt/a in the PFS are now expected to increase production levels up to 5 Mt/a. Based on the PFS capital cost estimate and mine plan, Phase 2A is expected to take approximately 21 months for detailed design and construction at a capital cost of approximately US$100- 125 million. Production of over 280 000 oz/a is targeted to commence in Q4 2018. The second stage of the project, Phase 2B, will expand the mining opera- tion to mine both Esaase oxide and fresh

May 2016  MODERN MINING  11