Savkino Gold Project

Key Data

Savkino Gold Mine is located 400km east of Chita in the Zabaikalsky Province of South Siberia. The mine is owned and operated by UK-based company White Tiger Gold. The property lies in the south appendage of the Ildikan license area and has a surface area of 3.1km2.

The exploration and production of hard-rock gold license was approved to Ildikangold, a Russian subsidiary of White Tiger Gold, by the Federal Ministry of Natural Resources in July 2006. In May 2008, permission was granted to develop and begin operations at the mine.

Geology and reserves of the Savkino mine area

The deposit lies within the Smirnovsko-Mikhailovsky Mineral district. It is hosted between the Smirnovskaya and Mikhailovskiy regional fault zones.

The geology at the mine is prevailed by the Savkino anticline which is confined by the Savkino and Mihkailovskiy thrust faults. The Savkino thrust fault contains lower Cambrian carbonate rocks that are penetrated over lower Jurassic terrigenous units.

The mine also hosts igneous rocks such as lower permian granite, Jurassic granodiorite and Cretaceous rhyolite. The gold mineralisation is hosted in the north-east-trending Jurassic granodiorite and syenite porphyries dykes that are positioned by significant hydrothermal revision of the calcareous rocks.

The mine contains 0.269 million tons (mt) of proven reserves graded at 1.46g/t Au. The probable reserves are estimated at 2.436mt graded at 1.27g/t Au.

Mineralisation at the Savkino gold mine

Gold mineralisation at the mine is hosted in the gold placer lying in the Lower Borzya, Ildikan and North Ildikan River valleys. It is also hosted in the hanging wall of the anticline. High rated gold deposits are situated in the upper Jurassic dykes along with silica, sericite, pyrite and barite.

Stretching up to 3km long, the mineralisation exists at a depth of 175m. The width varies between 30m and 50m.

Open-pit mining methods

Savkino has been developed as an open-pit mine and is being mined using truck and shovel method. The pit was dug to a depth of 178m. The strike length and width of the pit are 1,100m and 400m respectively. The open-pit hosts approximately 12,000m3 of overburden with strip ratio of 4.2.

The infrastructure being used for the mining includes two Komatsu PC750 (75t) excavators, a smaller Komatsu P?200-7 (20t) excavator, nine Belaz 45t dump trucks and three Russian bulldozers.

Ore processing at the Siberian mine

The processing plant at Savkino mine can process 500,000t/y of ore. A new CH 430 Sandvik cone crusher was set up at the plant in June 2011. The run of mine ore is transferred to the primary jaw crusher by conveyors.

The crushed ore is carried to the second crusher for next stage of crushing. The output is conveyed to a surge bin and then to an agglomeration drum containing leach pregnant solution (PS).

The leach solution is prepared by processing the leach solution of cement, lime and barren with dilute cyanide solution. It is disseminated over the heap surface from an array of pipes, wobblers and drip emitters to create the pregnant solution (PS).

The PS comprising dissolved gold passes via the heap surface and accumulates in the pregnant solution pond. The resulting solution from the pond is pumped to a adsorption, desorption and recovery (ADR) building. The gold is absorbed on to actuated carbon from the barren solution and stored in two pachuca tanks.

The gold accumulated carbon is stockpiled in the first pachuca tank and transmitted to a elution and electrowinning circuit. The resultant cathode is smelted with fluxes in an induction chamber and transported to the refinery for acidic and caustic washing and then conveyed to the adsorption circuit. The gold is retrieved from the carbon by using a hot solution of caustic soda.

Production at the Russian Federation's Savkino gold mine

Production at the Savkino mine commenced in October 2008. The mine produced 3,231oz of gold by the second quarter of 2011 and is anticipated to produce 21,000oz of gold in 2011.

http://www.mining-technology.com/projects/savkino-gold-project/