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26
MODERN MINING
July 2015
feature
COUNTRY FOCUS –
BOTSWANA
Recent enhancements to
the Mupane plant include
this liquid cyanide facility,
expected to lead to a 1 %
increase in recovery.
The Mupane processing
plant, commissioned in
2004 and still going strong.
It can process up to 1,2 Mt/a.
greenstone deposits in the Barberton area and
in Zimbabwe.
“Once Tau Underground – as we call it –
is in full production, it will provide nearly a
third of the plant throughput. The plant, which
is a modern CIL facility, can handle 100 000
tonnes a month, so the Tau ore will be sup-
plemented by ore from Golden Eagle, where
we’ve recently restarted mining, and soon from
Tekwane, where the gold mineralisation occurs
in a quartz rubble bed close to surface – which
means very low mining costs. Tekwane has
an indicated and inferred resource of around
24 000 ounces and we will be putting in a new
gravity circuit at the Mupane plant site to han-
dle the processing.
“Looking further out, we are going to mine
at Jim’s Luck, around 20 km north-east of the
plant on the border with Zimbabwe, with pro-
duction probably starting in 2017. We’ve drawn
up a mine plan based on a US$1 400 gold price,
which envisages the mining of 680 000 tonnes
of ore at an average grade of 2,16 g/t at a strip
ratio of 5,5.”
Byron adds that the stockpiles located at the
ROM pad at the Mupane plant are consider-
able, amounting to just over 700 000 tonnes at
0,97 g/t. “As you probably know, we commis-
sioned a screening plant at the mine last year to
handle this material. By using a 40 mm screen,
we can upgrade a large part of this resource by
a significant margin and we’re expecting the
process – which is already underway – to pro-
duce an additional 266 000 tonnes of ore at an
average grade of 1,60 g/t. The material is easily
milled with the recovery anticipated to be above
80 %. The direct operating cost will be between
US$600 and US$700 per ounce.”
Galane has another 1,4 Mt of low grade
stockpiles scattered around its tenements and
is currently reviewing whether these can also
be treated through the screening plant.
Byron acknowledges that cash restraints