https://www.miningweekly.com

Tropicana mine, Australia

7th February 2020

By: Sheila Barradas

Creamer Media Research Coordinator & Senior Deputy Editor

     

Font size: - +

Name: Tropicana mine.

Location: The mine is located about 330 km north-east of Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia.

Mine Owner/s: Tropicana Joint Venture (JV), comprising AngloGold Ashanti Australia (70% and manager) and Independence Group, or IGO (30%).

Brief Description: Tropicana is a large-scale, openpit operation featuring a modern processing plant, which uses conventional carbon-in-leach (CIL) technology and includes high-pressure grinding rolls for energy efficient comminution. Mining is conducted under an alliance-style contract with Macmahon.

Brief History: IGO targeted and pegged the area containing the current ore reserves in 2001. AngloGold Ashanti farmed into the project in 2002, discovering the Tropicana, Havana and Boston Shaker gold deposits in 2005, 2006 and 2010 respectively. 

The decision to develop the Tropicana operation was announced in November 2010, following completion of a positive bankable feasibility study.

Mining of the Havana deposit started in 2012, with the first gold being produced in September 2013. As of January 2019, the Tropicana operation had produced an estimated 2.5-million ounces.

Primary Metals: Gold.

Secondary Metals: None stated.

Geology/Mineralisation: Tropicana is a rare example of a large gold deposit within high-grade metamorphic rocks that have undergone widespread recrystallisation and melting.

The Tropicana JV concession packages comprise about 3 600 km2 of tenements stretching over about 160 km in strike length along the Yilgarn craton and Fraser Range mobile belt collision zone. 

Tropicana is situated to the west of a major tectonic suture between the Yilgarn craton and the Proterozoic Albany-Fraser province that stretches over 550 km. The majority of the project covers tectonically reworked Archean rocks that form the eastern margin of the Yilgarn craton.

The regional geology is dominated by granitoid rocks, felsic to mafic paragneiss and orthogneiss, and felsic to ultramafic intrusive and volcano-sedimentary rocks.

Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2018, were estimated at 65.7-million tonnes grading 1.77 g/t gold.

Resources: Total mineral resources as at December 31, 2018, were estimated at 136.2-million tonnes grading 1.76 g/t gold.

Mining Method: Openpit truck-and-shovel from four continuous pits over a strike length of 5 km.

Major Infrastructure and Equipment: Ore is processed through a 7.8-million-tonne-a-year conventional CIL plant to produce doré bars.

The installation of an additional ball mill commissioned in November 2018 will lift metallurgical recovery up to 3% and process plant throughput capacity to 8.1-million tonnes a year.

Prospects: The development of the underground reserve at Tropicana’s Boston Shaker deposit is making steady progress, creating a runway for the mine to extend its strong contributions to the JV.

In addition, Tropicana has committed to trialling autonomous drilling. This has the potential to improve drill productivity by an estimated 15%, reducing the number of drills and operators required from 2020, if the trial is successful. Autonomous drilling is expected to reduce wear, extend drill-bit life and improve equipment use.

Contact Details:
AngloGold Ashanti
Tel + 27 11 637 6000
Email investors@anglogoldashanti.com
Website https://www.anglogoldashanti.com
 

IGO
Tel +61 8 9238 8300
Email contact@igo.com.au
Website https://www.igo.com.au

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION