Modern Mining December 2018

MINING News

Sabodala shines for Teranga Gold

original guidance range of between 210 000 and 225 000 ounces. Third quar- ter and year-to-date per ounce costs improved versus the prior year periods, positioning the company to achieve the lower end of its full year guidance ranges for these metrics. “Our team continued to execute suc- cessfully, managing the rainy season to achieve another strong operating quar- ter,” said Paul Chawrun, Teranga’s Chief Operating Officer. “With record year-to- date production at Sabodala in Senegal, we expect 2018 to set a new high for gold production after record-breaking years in 2016 and 2017. This is a testament to our continuous improvement programme, which is resulting in improved grades rela- tive to the Sabodala technical report, as well as our ability tomanage our per ounce cost metrics.” “We have a very clear vision – to build a multi-asset, mid-tier gold producer inWest Africa. We believe this can be achieved in the next five years,” commented Richard Young, President and CEO. “Our producing mine continues to generate strong free cash flows. We have a second mine under construction which, upon completion, is expected to increase annualised consolidated produc- tion by 50 % to about 350 000 ounces. Additionally, we have a third project, Golden Hill, that has the potential to be our third mine and take the company to mid-tier producer status.”  deposits to be discovered in close proximity to our advanced Prieska zinc-copper project. VMS deposits tend to occur in clusters and yet there has been virtually no exploration outside of the known deposits at Prieska in several decades,” comments Errol Smart, Orion’s Managing Director and CEO. “In fact, this intersection is the first new VMS discov- ery in the Areachap Belt for the past 36 years. “This important discovery demonstrates the huge potential to find additional depos- its within a 5-10 km radius of the proposed processing plant and mine infrastructure at Prieska, validating our exploration strat- egy which is aimed at unlocking the value of this rich mineral province. It also dem- onstrates the advantage of using modern geophysical exploration techniques in such a well-mineralised VMS terrain and is the deepest ‘blind deposit’ ever discovered in the Areachap.” 

The Sabodala mill was the first industrial gold processing facility to come into operation in Senegal. It now has the capacity to process up to 4,5 Mt/a (photo: Teranga).

into operation in Senegal and, to this day, remains the largest gold operation in the country. The mill has undergone two expansions – one in late 2012 and the other completed in 2016 – and is now able to process up to 4,5 Mt/a, nearly double its initial capacity. The company achieved record third quarter and year-to-date gold production at Sabodala of 56 376 and 185 788 ounces, respectively, and is on track to achieve full year 2018 production of between 235 000 and 240 000 ounces – up from Teranga’s Magnetic (FLEM) conductor located 5,3 km south-southwest of the Hutchings Shaft at the Prieska project and 1,6 km west and along strike of known copper mineralisa- tion at Annex. The modelled conductor has a strike length of 1,1 km and extends down-dip to at least 800 m below surface. The vertical depth to the top of the conduc- tor is 500 m. Orion believes the identification of cop- per (chalcopyrite) and zinc (sphalerite) associated with the massive sulphide min- eralisation, and with host lithology similar to that at the Prieska deposit, suggests the discovery of a Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) deposit. “The discovery at Ayoba is a very important breakthrough, which clearly demonstrates the potential for large satellite

Canada’s Teranga Gold Corporation, listed on the TSX, has reported its oper- ating, financial and development results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2018. Teranga owns and operates the Sabodala gold mine in Senegal and is developing a second mine, Wahgnion, in Burkina Faso. Sabodala, a multi-pit operation which has been in production since 2009, has a CIL processing plant using a conventional flowsheet. The Sabodala mill was the first industrial gold processing facility to come

Orion announces VMS discovery near Prieska Orion Minerals, listed on the ASX and JSE, has announced the discovery of a new cop- per-zinc bearing massive sulphide body located in close proximity to the company’s flagship Prieska zinc-copper project in the Areachap Belt of Northern Cape Province, South Africa.

The discovery hole, OAXD002, was drilled at the Ayoba prospect, a satellite explora- tion target, and is both the first exploration hole drilled as part of Orion’s near-mine exploration project and the first hole to test for new mineralisation surrounding the his- torical Prieska mine in more than 36 years. The hole intersected 10,55 m of sulphide mineralisation, including 5,17 m of massive sulphides (>70 % sulphides) from a down- hole depth of 653,2 m. The discovery was made by drill testing a Fixed Loop Electro

December 2018  MODERN MINING  9