Photo by: Bloombeg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Cascavel gold project, in Brazil, was on track to achieve its first gold production in early 2016, owner Orinoco Gold reported on Wednesday.
Following a July decision to change the location of the processing plant from the Sertao gold mine to Cascavel, all the necessary environmental licences had now been granted.
Orinoco expected to record a number of significant cost savings in operational expenditure from having the processing plant located at Cascavel, along with other strategic and logistical benefits, as the plant would be located in a central position relative to other potential sources of mill feed.
The fabrication of the Cascavel processing plant remains on schedule, with the crushing circuit expected on site by November, while the gravity circuit would arrive in December.
The development of the underground mine was also progressing.
“We are very pleased by the strong progress being made at Cascavel, which puts the company firmly on track to make the leap from gold explorer to producer early next year,” said MD Mark Papendieck.
“The presence of visible gold in all development faces currently accessible at Cascavel, and the presence of thicker-than-anticipated mineralisation provides strong support for our belief that the project can underpin an exceptionally high-grade, high-margin mining operation.”
The Orinoco board in April approved the development of the $6.6-million Cascavel underground mine, which was expected to produce an initial 40 000 t/y of ore, using a gravity circuit capable of achieving gold recoveries of between 80% and 90%. Mining would initially focus on a small portion of the Cascavel and Mestre areas, using Orinoco’s existing underground extraction permits.