Name: Vila Nova.
Location: The Vila Nova mine is located in Amapá state, in northern Brazil
Controlling Company: Eldorado Gold.
Brief History: Eldorado Gold signed an option agreement with Mineração Amapari to acquire 50% of the Vila Nova project in 2005. A year later, Eldorado acquired the 50% interest in the project after exercising its option. The gold miner increased its interest in Vila Nova to 75% in 2007 and acquired the remaining 25% interest in the project in 2009. Commercial production at Vila Nova began in 2011.
Brief Description: Vila Nova is an openpit iron-ore mine, with a life-of-mine of nine years, based on current proven and probable reserves.
Products: Iron-ore.
Geology/Mineralisation: The Vila Nova deposit is hosted in a hematite-rich banded iron formation within the Vila Nova group of Paleoproterozoic age, located in a greenstone belt of the southern Guyana shield. The sedimentary sequence consists of clastic and chemical metasedimentary units with mafic metavolcanic rocks at the base. The region has been subjected to greenschist to amphibolite facies metamorphism and associated deformation.
The deposit is a steeply-dipping outcropping hematite body, 5 m to 40 m thick, trending north-south, with a narrow-fold limb extending to the north-west. The resource contains massive and laminated hematite with minor intercalations of schist in the central and southern part of the orebody and softer granular hematite in the north, particularly north of the Vila Nova river, where it becomes interspersed with iron-rich schist (itabirite).
Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2014, were 8.97-million tonnes grading at 58.7% iron.
Resources: Total measured and indicated resources as at December 31, 2014, were estimated at 13.19-million tonnes grading at 58.7% iron. Inferred mineral resources of 9.52-million tonnes at 59.7% iron.
Mining Method: Conventional openpit. Drill and blast is required in the harder rock areas.
Major Infrastructure and Equipment: The mining process uses standard hydraulic excavators and highway-type haul trucks, with conventional rock boxes.
The mine required the construction of a crushing, screening and separation plant, as well as screening and handling facilities at Santana port.
Prospects: Vila Nova was placed on care and maintenance late in the fourth quarter of 2014, pending a recovery in iron-ore prices.
Contact Person: VP investor relations Krista Muhr.
Contact Details:
Eldorado Gold,
tel +1 604 687 4018,
fax +1 604 687 4026,
email kristam@eldoradogold.com, and
website http://www.eldoradogold.com.