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Chirano mine, Ghana

30th March 2018

By: Sheila Barradas

Creamer Media Research Coordinator & Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Name: Chirano mine.

Location: Chirano is located in south-western Ghana, about 100 km south-west of Kumasi, the country’s second-largest city.

Ownership: Kinross Gold (90%) and the Ghana government (10%).

Brief Description: The Chirano mine comprises the Akwaaba, Suraw, Akoti South, Akoti North, Akoti Extended, Paboase, Tano, Obra South, Obra, Sariehu and Mamnao deposits. Several openpits and two underground operations are mined.

Chirano has a mine life to 2020.

Brief History: Chirano achieved its first gold pour in October 2005. Kinross acquired the mine on September 17, 2010, upon completing its acquisition of Red Back Mining.

Products: Gold.

Geology/Mineralisation: The Chirano mine area lies within the Proterozoic terrain of south-west Ghana, along a major structure separating the Sefwi belt to the west from the Kumasi basin to the east known as the Bibiani shear zone. The belt and basin architecture comprise rocks of Birimian age, with the belts being dominated by mafic volcanics and the basins typified by fine-grained, deep marine sediments. Both are intruded by granites.

The Chirano gold deposits are situated close to a splay off the main Bibiani shear zone known as the Chirano shear. The two are separated by a small inlier of younger Tarkwaian epiclastic sediments. The deposits occur at regular intervals along a mineralised zone 11 km long. The mineralised horizon is characterised by foliation, veining and brecciation, and is interpreted as a splay fault off the Chirano shear with mineralisation occurring within 200 m to the west of the Chirano shear.

The Chirano gold deposits are hosted by fractured and altered mafic volcanics and granite, and include stacked arrays of parallel veinlets, veinlet stockworks and mineralised cataclasites. The geometry and shape of the deposits range from tabular (Obra) or pipe-like (Tano) to multiple parallel lodes (Paboase). The mineralised zone thickness ranges from a few meters to more than 70 m. Most deposits dip very steeply towards the west or south-west, and plunge very steeply.

Generally, the tenor of the gold mineralisation correlates with the intensity of alteration, veining and brecciation. The gold mineralisation is fine grained and is associated with 1% to 5% pyrite, and the distribution of gold appears to be closely associated with the presence of pyrite. The hydrothermal alteration assemblage is characterised by silica, ankerite, albite, sericite and pyrite.

Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2016, were estimated at 11.19-million tonnes grading 2.4 g/t gold.

Resources: Total measured and indicated resources are estimated at 11.47-million tonnes grading 2.2 g/t gold.

Mining Method: Openpit and underground.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Openpit and underground ore are processed at the 3.5-million-tonne-a-year Chirano plant. Processing involves crushing, ball mill grinding, leaching and carbon-in-leach. Gold is recovered by an elution circuit.

Prospects: In 2016, the site transitioned from mining the Akwaaba deposit to the Paboase underground deposit.

The second underground mine at Paboase is now in production and Kinross plans to continue underground development.

Contact: Senior VP investor relations and corporate development Tom Elliott.

Contact Details:
Kinross Gold
Tel +1 416 365 5123
Fax +1 416 363 6622
Email info@kinross.com
Website http://kinross.com/
 

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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