One of the world’s largest open-pit gold mines, the Refugio in Chile, is up and running and ready to pour gold.
Construction of the $127-million mine, a 50-50 joint venture between Amax Gold (TSE) and Bema Gold (TSE), was completed in December 1995.
In accordance with saftey regulations in the earthquake-prone country, all mine structures were built stronger than those at typical North American mines.
A conventional, heap-leach operation, Refugio has an ore-processing rate of 30,000 tonnes per day. Ore is blasted in the pit, trucked to a primary crusher and transported via conveyor to a stockpile of coarse ore. The coarse ore is then fed to fine crushers and trucked to the leach pads.
Pregnant solution is pumped through carbon columns, and the gold is recovered by cathode electroplating. Dore bars are produced on site.
The first gold pour is expected in the first quarter. Annual production is expected to average 233,000 oz., and the mine life is projected at 9.4 years, based on reserves of 112 million tons grading 0.03 oz. gold per ton.
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