International Mining April 2009, page 48, refers to Metplant having carried out the detailed engineering design for Red Back Mining’s Chirano plant in Ghana. Peter De Leo, Managing Director of Lycopodium Minerals points out that “it was Lycopodium who provided the full EPCM services (including commissioning) for the original Chirano project. We are also providing full EPCM services on the Chirano upgrade (currently under construction). Metplant was a sub-consultant to us, providing plant engineering and drafting support, using as its basis previous Lycopodium designs.”
It was in March 2008 that Lycopodium Minerals QLD was awarded an EPCM contract for an expansion of the Chirano gold project to increase the plant throughput to 3.5 Mt/y. This award continued Lycopodium’s involvement with the development of this project, 100 km southwest of Kumasi, in Ghana, West Africa. Previous work included the feasibility study, completed in 2003, as well as EPCM services in 2005/2006 for a treatment plant which can process combinations of oxide and primary ores. This treatment plant commenced operation in October 2005 with a nameplate capacity of 2 Mt/y.
In 2007, Lycopodium carried out comminution option studies which investigated an increase in plant throughput to 3.2 Mt/y.
Red Back’s latest news from Chirano, announced at the end of March was an initial Inferred resource for the Paboase South and Suraw underground deposits. Based upon a 2008 first phase exploration program below the Paboase and Suraw open pits, Red Back’s consultants, Hellman and Schofield, calculated an Inferred resource at a 2g/t Au cutoff, as a first step in evaluating the economic potential of developing a second underground operation at Chirano. Paboase South contains 2.27 Mt at 3.5 g/t Au and Suraw 1.87 Mt at 4.1g/t, for a total of 490,000 oz. These underground resources are reported below the 2,248 and 2,224 m elevations, which are the base of current open pit designs.
Based upon this initial resource, an in-fill drill program has commenced to better define these underground deposits and to test for additional high grade resources under the nearby Tano, Akoti and Obra open pits. The Paboase and Suraw open pit operations are located in the central part of the Chirano Mine, 1 and 3 km, respectively, from the processing plant.
Commenting on the newly discovered underground resource, Richard Clark, President and CEO of the Company, stated: “We are very encouraged by the initial inferred resources under the central part of the Chirano pit complex. Infill drilling of the surface deposits at Chirano over the last three has identified the potential for other high grade underground operations, in addition to the Akwaaba Deeps discovery which is now in development. The new Paboase and Suraw underground resources clearly confirm this potential. Work will now continue at Paboase and Suraw towards establishing our second underground operation at Chirano.”
