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Gold Fields and Gold One International have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to investigate the viability of concurrently reprocessing their combined surface tailings deposits, located on the West Rand region of South Africa’s Witwatersrand Basin. Gold One and Gold Fields currently operate mines on the West Rand, a region with a long history of gold and uranium mining. Gold Fields and Gold One will jointly investigate the feasibility of establishing a Joint Venture into which both parties will contribute surface assets for retreatment. These assets are expected to comprise in excess of 700 Mt and represent over 60% of the total tailings material in the region. The parties aim to complete a detailed scoping study by the middle of this year, following which a decision will be taken on whether to progress the study to a feasibility level. (more…)
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Gold Fields and Gold one examine treating West Rand tailings – a major resource of gold and uranium

In early April this year, Alcyone started re-irrigating the existing silver-rich heaps at the Twin Hills mine, which forms part of the Texas project, to demonstrate the viability of the leaching process before moving to a full-scale commercial silver production.

The silver-rich solutions from the leach pads was processed using the pilot scale Merrill Crowe circuit at site, which Alcyone said on Thursday confirmed the viability of the proposed long-term process flow sheet.

The first batch of Silver rich precipitate was then treated off-site with the first silver bullion poured on 15 June. While this bullion still has to undergo final refining, it has been estimated that it will deliver more than 15,000oz of silver.

Alcyone Resources’ Managing Director, Andrew King said: “This is a wonderful achievement for the Alcyone team, who have successfully brought the Twin Hills Project into early production just 18 months after first making the acquisition. The re-irrigation of the existing silver heaps at Twin Hills provided us with an excellent opportunity to validate the proposed leaching process while also allowing the Company to capitalise on the current strong silver price. With the silver price currently sitting comfortably above A$30 per ounce, and our unit cash operating costs forecast at approximately A$15/oz, the Twin Hills operation should be capable of generating a strong cash margin as we move towards full scale mining operations later this year.”

For the full press release click here.
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Alcyone pours first silver from Twin Hills, hopes to produce 2m oz/year at a cost of $15/oz

These updated estimates continue Dampier’s methodical review of previous models generated for the significant gold deposits within the Plutonic Dome project area. The new resource estimates are based on drilling completed by the previous owners and by Dampier in 2010 and incorporates updated interpretations of the mineralization.

Initial pit optimisation studies indicate that the K1 and K2-K3 resources reported here have strong potential for conversion to mineable reserves. These deposits are currently the subject of a Scoping Study to determine the viability of re-establishing a mining centre in this area. Dampier has framework terms of agreement with Barrick to treat any such ore through Barrick’s Plutonic processing facility.

For more details read the full press release

Image by Dampier Gold
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Dampier exceeds 500,000-oz gold resource milestone