The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Ore fines scalping plant will boost Eagle Gold output in 2023 North of 60 Mining News - January 17, 2022
Project 250 is expected to increase Eagle Gold Mine production to 250,000 ounces during 2023.
A new facility will scalp off ore fines and send them directly to the heap leach pad via this overland conveyor.
Victoria Gold Corp. sees outsized benefits from a relatively small investment into Project 250, a strategy to increase production at its Eagle Gold Mine in the Yukon to 250,000 ounces during 2023.
"Project 250 represents a significant near-term, low-cost opportunity to increase annual gold production at Eagle," said Victoria Gold President and CEO John McConnell.
A scoping study completed by Victoria details plans to incorporate an intermediate scalping screen that will bypass fine ore material from the crushing circuit directly to the heap leach pad. This simple diversion is expected to increase the crushing circuit throughput by roughly 15%, thereby boosting potential ore stacking on the heap leach pad by approximately 1.5 million metric tons per year.
Over the first 18 months of commercial operations at Eagle, Victoria has found that the run-of-mine material coming from the deposit contains a higher percentage of fine ore material than the original design parameters contemplated. Sending these ore fines directly to the heap leach facility, bypassing the tertiary crushing unit, is expected to have a positive impact on the productivity and throughput of the entire crushing facility.
The new fines screening and scalping facility will be located just north of the current fine crushing plant. This locale, along with the designed layout, allows the screening facility to be built without interrupting the operations through tie-in of two existing conveyors, which will result in minimal downtime to commission the facility once constructed.
Victoria has selected the equipment for this new facility to mesh well with the equipment already installed at Eagle.
The Mesto MF-4285-2 double-deck multi-slope (banana) screen to be installed in the new facility is identical to the tertiary screens currently utilized at Eagle. Similarly, the conveyor components, idlers, belting, and drives were selected to duplicate the current conveyors. The drives for the new conveyors, however, are new to the operation.
In addition to the screen and conveyors, a 6,000-cubic-foot-per-minute dust collector with attendant fans and ducting will be installed. The collected dust will be directed to a mixer system that binds the dust prior to discharge to the fines transfer conveyor and then out to the leach pad. Also, an overhead crane will be installed to allow for screen replacements and related maintenance.
The total capital cost for the equipment, engineering, procurement, construction, indirect spares, commissioning, freight, and contingency is C$18 million. Based on processing 14 million metric tons of material per year, the operating costs for this new facility are expected to be C4 cents per metric ton.
In addition to the scalping screen facility, Project 250 contemplates year-round stacking of the heap leach pad, which will extend the overall stacking schedule from nine to eleven months a year. This schedule allows for an annual four-week maintenance shutdown of the crushing circuit.
The planned year-round stacking will require the addition of two 785 haul trucks and one loader at Eagle.
Construction of the new fines bypass facility is slated to get underway during the second quarter and is expected to be completed by the end of the year, which would put Project 250 into action for 2023.
"The team continues to drive further opportunities to increase value," said McConnell. "I am confident Project 250 will produce material benefits for all our stakeholders."
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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