Daily Archives: February 24, 2020

Canadas Eldorado Gold has announced a 15-year mine life at Kisladag, in Turkey, to 2034, following the completion of long-cycle heap leach testwork and the replacement of the tertiary crushing circuit with a high-pressure grinding roll (HPGR) circuit.

The new mineral reserve for Kisladag includes proven and probable reserves of 173.2-million tonnes of ore at 0.72 g/t, containing four-million ounces of gold.

The mine is forecast to produce an average of 160000 oz/y at an average cash cost of $675/oz to $725/oz and an average all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $800/oz to $850/oz.

Kisladag has been the cornerstone asset of Eldorado for over a decade, producing over three-million ounces of gold and generating significant value for all stakeholders during that period. Following the resumption of full operations last spring, and the significant work and testing undertaken by the Eldorado team over the past 18 months, we are pleased to announce a mine life extension at Kisladag that puts this asset back in the core of our portfolio, said president and CEO George Burns.

Eldorado reported that the project self-funds all development capital for waste stripping and the HPGR circuit. The cost for the HPGRcircuit, about $35-million, is spread over 2020 and 2021, while the cost of capitalised waste stripping, about $260-million, is spread over the life of the project, with heavier stripping in the first several years.

Meanwhile, Eldorado said it would produce 520000 oz to 550000 oz of gold in 2020, a substantial increase ofon the 395331 oz produced in 2019.

Average cash operating costs are forecast to decline from $608/oz of gold sold in 2019, to $550/oz to $600/oz of gold sold in 2020. The AISC for 2020 is forecast to be $850/oz to $950/oz of gold sold, down on the $1033/oz of gold sold in 2019.

With the extension of Kisladags mine life and continued operations at Lamaque, in Canada, Efemcukuru, in Turkey, and Olympias, in Greece, Eldorado is forecasting five-year production from its four current operations to average over 450 000 oz/y. In addition to the updated Kisladag technical report, the company is in the process of updating technical reports for Olympias and Efemcukuru, which will be published by the end of the first quarter.

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Mine life extension puts Kisladag back on the map - Creamer Media's Mining Weekly

MORGANTOWN West Virginia University is continuously stretching beyond Morgantown and Monongalia County and making a mark in all 55 of the Mountain States counties through ventures in health care, job creation and Extension services.

WVU is a land-grant institution, meaning it aims to lead in research productivity and undergraduate and graduate education and serve as an engine of growth for the states economy, according to the WVU Center for the Future of Land Grant Education. That classification contributes directly to the universitys mission of making an impact in West Virginia.

We belong to the people of this state, WVU President Dr. E. Gordon Gee said, adding that the university is in all 55 counties through health care and the Extension Service. We have taken a much more aggressive role in engaging with all of our various communities.

Gee said education, health care and prosperity are the main pillars of WVUs mission to serve West Virginia and they communicate just how much WVU cares about the state.

I believe that our priority is to create jobs and create jobs directly, Gee said, adding that education goes beyond classes at WVU and into working closely with public school systems across the state to meet educational goals, which has been a priority for him since he returned as president in 2013.

That focus on job creation and the economy comes through programs like WVUs Vantage Ventures, which is aiming to make the state more attractive for startups by building businesses deploying intellectual property across the universitys expansive research platforms while leveraging its untapped pools of science, technology, engineering and business talent.

Im proud of our engagement, Gee said. Im proud of what were doing.

Perhaps one of the most notable and recognizable ways WVU is engaging with communities around West Virginia is through WVU Medicine.

With our health system, were the largest employer in the state, and were the largest economic facilitator in the state, Gee said. With that comes immense responsibility.

WVU Medicine is overseeing 12 hospitals around the state and managing health clinics and hospitals in West Virginia and surrounding states, according to Dr. Clay Marsh, vice president and dean of WVU Health Sciences.

We hope to be able to increase the accessibility of people in West Virginia to getting good medical care, he said. Weve greatly expanded our capacity and our skills in the complexity of the care that we can deliver. ... We are able to address any complex need for any person in the state of West Virginia here in the state.

WVU has been on the cutting edge of many areas of health care, accomplishing some procedures and advancements first in the state and country like the first heart transplant in the history of the state and construction of the Mountain States first childrens hospital.

Our goal is that no West Virginian has to leave this state to get good health care, Gee said.

To be of service to patients across the state, WVU Medicine and WVU Health Sciences have to be accessible to the rural population of West Virginia, which creates its own set of challenges.

Part of Health Sciences and part of WVU is were doing a lot of community outreach, he said, using the example of working with a set of varied community and health-care leaders in Harrison County to meet the needs of that area. We are creating pathways that people across the state can access.

That includes working with local food pantries to facilitate delivery in more rural communities and creating a network of practice-based research sites and hospitals to figure out how to best serve rural communities.

One of the areas for which WVU Medicine heard the most need is telemedicine, which WVU has made a main priority, according to Marsh.

We are serving the state both in person and ... were also using telemedicine for the part of the state that can receive the telemedicine signal, he said, adding that the telestroke network has expanded to smaller hospitals in the southern part of the state, and more individuals are being trained there meet area-specific needs.

With telemedicine comes a need for high-speed internet and broadband, and Marsh said WVU is working with legislative leaders to answer that call and further the advancement of telemedicine access and use.

We believe thats another point of what we can do from a lobbying standpoint, is try and connect everybody, he said.

Partnership and collaboration are key, from Marshs standpoint, in making strides for the whole state.

We want to help anybody that we can, he said, adding that working with other universities and community partners is key for touching everyday people especially in rural areas. I think, in general, we have come together nicely and have set a nice foundation for working together in the future.

As part of its role as a land-grant institution, WVU has an Extension Service that provides activities and research-based information to residents and communities throughout the state, according to Sue Day-Perroots, interim dean and director of the WVU Extension Service.

West Virginia has agents in all 55 counties, Day-Perroots said, adding that Extension Service agents have expertise in areas like youth development, agriculture, economic development and healthy living. We have over 70,000 youth that are involved in 4-H and youth development programs.

One of the Extension Services award-winning programs is Energy Express, which focuses on nutrition and summer reading support for low-income children, serving more than 3,000 students each year, she said.

Day-Perroots noted that Extension Service agents were recently given statistics and research on every county information that was gathered at an annual conference this year to further support goals for individual communities in West Virginia.

We looked at educational attainment. We looked at workforce development. We looked at healthy living criteria and gave that to our agents. And part of their plan of work was to look at what programming best fit and best addressed the needs of their communities, she said.

Programs like Dining with Diabetes, youth engagement, Extension Garden Calendar and 4-H all go back to the Extension Service, which Day-Perroots said is the best way to know exactly how WVU can play a role in everyday life.

See the wealth of what is available to everyday citizens, she said.

Perhaps the biggest message WVU leaders want state residents to know is that WVU cares about the overall health and success of the state, according to Gee.

With issues like the opioid epidemic, rural health concerns and social isolation, Marsh believes that WVU Medicine and WVU Health Sciences are there to serve any community in West Virginia and improve quality of life through collaboration and partnership.

We are here to serve the state, Marsh said. We have built the capacity to take care of anybody who has an illness here in the state. ... Our goal is for people to be well, because thats what we want for people that we love.

WVU leadership cares about faculty, staff, alumni and friends, but also the state as a whole, and Gee wants to live up to the pride many feel in the gold and blue.

We want every West Virginian in their hearts and minds to believe that this university is in their lives and serving them, Gee said. Our name is West Virginia University, and we carry that with pride. ... In many ways, the university really represents the pride of the state.

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WVU aims to make an impact in everyday West Virginians' lives - WV News

Native mason and leafcutter bees are highly efficient pollinators, especially in cross-pollination, and are generalists in their flower choices.

As I listen to the rain, I notice the bouquet of flowers on the counter. The flowers remind me of the two groups of native pollinators that we have in our gardens and flower beds.

They are the native mason and leafcutter bees. Both bees are dark in color and small in size somewhere between a large fly and honey bee.

Unlike European honey bees, their dark bodies warm up quickly in the morning sun and they begin flying early in the day. They are solitary bees and do not live in hives, nor do they produce honey. They are highly efficient pollinators, especially in cross-pollination, and are generalists in their flower choices. They lay their eggs in cocoons in hollow reeds, abandoned beetle burrows and in man-made wood or paper nesting tubes.

Like the honey bee, their life span is only six to eight weeks long.

Mason bees emerge from their overwintering cocoons when the daytime air temperature is in the low to mid-50 degrees. In Pittsburgh, this is around April 15, generally when crocus, daffodils, redbud or forsythias are beginning to bloom. Their nest is lined with mud hence the name mason bee.

Mason bees prefer the pollen and nectar of flowering fruit and nut trees such as cherry, plum, apple, apricot, peach, pear and several nut varieties. They will also forage native plants or herbs that are blooming.

One mason bee is estimated to be capable of pollinating enough cherry blossoms to produce 12 pounds of cherries. It would take 60 honeybees to pollinate a similar number of cherry blossoms!

The second group of native bees are leafcutter bees, which emerge from their overwintering cocoons around mid-June roughly when summer begins and daytime temperatures are 75 to 80 degrees. They will seek pollen from fruit, wild flowers and vegetables for example, beans, squash, tomatoes, sunflowers and asters. Leafcutters also employ grazing flight patterns similar to mason bees making them efficient pollinators.

The leafcutter bees home is also in a hollow tube which they will line with cut out sections of leaves or petals. Cutting sections of leaves to line their nests gives them the name leafcutter bees.

As a home gardener, you can provide an artificial habitat for these bees, in wood or paper nesting tubes.

For more information, visit https://extension.psu.edu/conserving-wild-bees-in-pennsylvania.

Hummingbirds are the featured pollinator at the Penn State Master Gardeners Smart Gardening Workshop on March 14 at the Learning Resource Center on the Community College of Beaver County campus. For more information and to register by the March 6 deadline, go to https://extension.psu.edu/smart-gardening.

Frank Saus is a Master Gardener with Penn State Extension -- Beaver County.

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Over the Garden Gate: Bees are native pollinators - Ellwood City Ledger

I read with concern Steven Valdezs letter (Connect Richards now, Feb. 14), arguing that it definitely is a no-brainer to pave a Richards Avenue connection. Projects that cost millions of dollars are not no-brainers. Arguing that neighbors who oppose this costly project are only concerned about their property is incorrect.

Property owners have every right to be concerned about their property values; likely Valdez is concerned with his if he owns a home. For many homeowners in the affected area, their houses represent their life savings.

But the proposed routes across the arroyo raise a variety of other problems that bear careful thought. They run through relatively narrow residential streets with speed bumps, so none is easily traversable between Cerrillos and Rodeo roads. Also, no methodology is provided in the preliminary report indicating how the figures on the number of cars that would use the proposed routes were calculated.

No proposed route seems likely to carry the numbers of cars projected. Given the distances to the Institute of American Indian Arts and Santa Fe Community College, the real connection will be to Genoveva Chavez Community Center. To spend millions of dollars on creating that connection at the same time that the city is engaged in trying to redevelop the midtown campus is worrisome. Just how many major projects can the city afford?

The report also argues that the project will not affect water flow in the arroyo, based on 100-year floodplain maps. In a time of intense climate change, those maps are hardly predictive.

In the summer of 2018, after very heavy rainfall, the arroyo nearly overflowed its banks. The proximity of many houses and businesses to the arroyo on both sides means that flood control considerations must be a priority in weighing the costs and benefits of the project.

It is fair to ask: Will this project actually change driving patterns as much as those in favor argue that it will? As planning goes forward, what, it must also be asked, will be the projects mid- and long-term financial, environmental and even recreational costs to Santa Feans?

Susan Kellogg is a historian who lives in Santa Fe.

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What is the real cost of a Richards Avenue extension? - Santa Fe New Mexican

Looking to stem losses driven by high-cost operations, New Gold (TSX: NGD; NYSE-AM: NGD) recently tabled revamped life-of-mine plans for its Rainy River and New Afton mines focused on improving the bottom line and boosting profitability.

The mine plan update was released along with the companys 2019 results that showed a US$74 million loss for the year, or 12 per share. Although New Gold hit its guidance with annual consolidated production of 486,141 gold-equivalent oz. (322,557 oz. gold, 596,452 oz. silver and 79.4 million lb. copper, its all-in-sustaining-costs (AISCs) of US$1,310 per oz. gold-equivalent for the year and US$1,862 per oz. gold-equivalent in the fourth quarter highlights the need to trim costs.

New Gold says its new life-of-mine plan is roughly a year in the making and focuses on mining method optimizations, evaluation of alternate mining scenarios, and reining in capital requirements to boost profitability and deliver free cash flow.

The companys new vision for its Rainy River gold mine, located near Fort Frances in northwestern Ontario, sees a smaller pit shell for open-pit operations using a US$1,275 per oz. gold price and a boost in the mineral reserve cut-off grade to between 0.46 gram gold-equivalent per tonne to 0.49 gram gold-equivalent per tonne (up from the previous 0.30 gram gold-equivalent per tonne cut-off grade). The revised plan would mine open-pit ore at a lower strip ratio of 2.53:1 (waste:ore) over a four-year mine life through to 2024, with full depletion of the pit by early 2025.

Lower-grade open pit ore (0.30 gram gold-equivalent per tonne to 0.46 gram gold-equivalent per tonne) mined during the pits operational life would be stockpiled to supplement mill feed once the mine transitions to underground operations.

Pit operations at New Golds Rainy River gold mine northwestern Ontario. Credit: New Gold.

Over its new open-pit operational life, New Gold forecasts mining 67.5 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 0.91 gram gold per tonne at Rainy River.

Underground operations at Rainy River are expected to come online in 2022, and would ramp-up to peak production from 2025 to 2027. The underground mine plan targets zones that can deliver optimal profitability at a gold price of US$1,275 per oz. and would use four in-pit portals and one portal outside the pit to exploit the ore blocks. Mining would cease in 2028, although the company says there are lower grade zones that could potentially support a mine life extension in a higher gold price environment. Over its planned underground mine life, an estimated 4.1 million tonnes of ore averaging 4.17 grams gold per tonne would be extracted.

Average annual production from Rainy River under the new plan is forecast at 289,000 oz. gold equivalent at a new life-of-mine average head grade of 1.06 grams gold per tonne and an 89% recovery rate. AISCs are forecast at US$967 per oz. gold-equivalent over the eight-year mine life. Total proven and probable reserves are tabled at 2.6 million contained oz. gold and 6.3 million contained oz. silver in 77.6 million tonnes grading 1.06 grams gold per tonne and 2.5 grams per tonne silver.

The company says it expects free cash flow generation at Rainy River beginning in the fourth quarter of this year, and over its new forecast mine life it anticipates total free cash flow of US$550 million at US$1,300 per oz. gold, or more than US$1 billion at a spot gold price assumption of US$1,550 per ounce gold.

Raymond James mining analyst Farooq Hamed highlighted the new Rainy River life-of-mine plan as a shorter life, lower-cost ounces scenario, with four years trimmed from the mine life with less production; however, that is offset by lower operating costs and significantly lower capital expenditures. In a research note, the analyst maintained his market perform rating for the company and has a $1.25 target price on the stock.

Scotiabank analyst Trevor Turnbull viewed the revised plan negatively. The new mine plan at Rainy River significantly reduced the mine life, and near-term capital costs (2020-2024) actually increased 16% to US$589 million, he comments in a research note. He also expresses concern over reduced cash flow and debt servicing capacity with US$400 million of senior unsecured debt maturing in late 2022; however, he maintained his Sector Perform rating on the stock and raised his one-year target price to US$1.00 from US75.

New Golds other operation, the New Afton underground gold-copper mine located on the outskirts of Kamloops in south-central British Colombia, also underwent a review over the past year looking to extend its life out to 2030.

The New Afton mine was historically mined by Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.B; NYSE: TCK) as the Afton open pit from 1978 to 1997, when operations ceased due to economic constraints in deepening the pit to exploit the deeper mineralization. New Gold acquired the project in 2005 and developed an exploration ramp near the pit floor to extract a bulk sample and subsequently developed an underground mine plan utilizing block caving to extract the ore. The underground mine commenced operation in mid-2012. With an average production rate of 16,000 tonnes per day, it is touted by the company as the largest daily tonnage underground hard rock mine in Canada.

The companys plan would bring New Aftons deeper and higher-grade C zone (situated at a depth of 800 metres to 1,200 metres) into development using a similar block caving method as utilized in the upper levels. Under the plan, development would commence this year and continue through 2024, with production beginning in the third quarter of 2024 and ramping up to full production from 2025 to 2029.

An operator using Sandviks AutoMine system to drive an LH410 in the New Afton mine. Credit: Sandvik.

In its news release announcing the mine plans revisions, Renaud Adams, New Golds president and CEO, said the company has an integrated mine plan that optimizes the self-funded development of New Aftons B3 and C zone that could deliver significant free cash flow of more than US$1 billion over the life of mine.

New Gold forecasts total capital for the life-of-mine (US$175 million and US$460 million in sustaining and non-sustaining capital, respectively) is anticipated to remain high from 2020 to 2023, primarily due to the C zone, and decrease significantly from 2024 to 2026, with minimal capital over the balance of the mine life.

The New Afton updated mine plan will also incorporate enhanced tailings engineering to increase the stability of the current and historical tailings, with in-pit thickened tailings deposition planned for the C zone ore portion.

Annual production from New Afton is forecast at 260,000 oz. gold-equivalent over the next decade under the new plan at life-of-mine average head grades of 0.68 gram gold per tonne with an 86% recovery rate and 0.77% copper with an 89% recovery rate. AISCs are expected to come in at US$681 per oz. gold equivalent (based on US$1,300 per oz. gold, US$16 per oz. silver and US$3 per lb copper) over the 10-year mine life. Total proven and probable reserves are 1 million contained oz. gold, 2.8 million contained oz. silver and 802 million lb. copper in 77.6 million tonnes grading 0.66 gram gold per tonne, 1.9 grams silver per tonne and 0.77% copper.

Following the release of its annual financial results and the new life-of-mine plans, shares in New Gold dropped as much as 16% to the 98 level, an almost eight-month low. At press time, the shares recovered slightly to $1.07 giving the company a $723 million market capitalization based on its 676 million common shares outstanding.

As of year-end 2019, New Gold had a cash position of US$83 million.

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New Gold updates Rainy River and New Afton mine plans - The Northern Miner