Name: Tucano mine.
Location: Amapá State, in northern Brazil.
Mine Owner/s: Canadian gold mining company Great Panther.
Brief Description: The Tucano mine comprises the Urucum, Urucum East, TAP AB and Duckhead openpits.
It also includes an underground mine project, which is situated below the Urucum North openpit.
Brief History: Great Panther acquired the Tucano mine from Beadell Resources in March 2019.
Primary Metals/Minerals: Gold.
Secondary Metals/Minerals: None stated.
Geology/Mineralisation: Mineralisation at the Tucano mine occurs in a series of deposits over a 7 km strike length associated with a north-south-trending shear zone.
The shear zone is hosted by the Proterozoic-aged Vila Nova greenstone belt and occurs near the contact of a large, dominantly clastic sedimentary package to the south-west and amphibolitic package to the north-west.
The greenstone belt has been significantly intruded by younger mafic to felsic intrusive bodies. The mineralisation trend is parallel to a north-south line of topographic ridges. From south to north, these deposits have been named TAP A, B, C, and Urucum. TAP D is a separate structure in the west. Higher grades are associated with the more intensely hydrothermally altered iron formations and iron-rich carbonate units bounding and intercalated with them. Deep weathering is present in most of the deposits, with high-grade mineralisation expending to near the surface as a layer of ‘colluvium’ several metres thick. Gold mineralisation can be found in the fresh rock at depth, in the saprolite zone created by in situ weathering of the underlying rocks, and in colluvial deposits.
Sulphide zones lie as bedding parallel sheets in steep-dipping, either east or west, limbs of folded banded iron formation/chemical sedimentary packages. Higher-grade zones show plunges, predominantly to the north that follow shear plane foliation, often crosscutting stratigraphy. Outside the shears and faulted zones, host rocks are meagre in sulphide and gold. The accumulation of auriferous massive and/or disseminated sulphides in zones of fractures and folds, and forming plunging mineralised shoots, often crossing lithological contacts, implies an epigenetic event.
Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at September 30, 2020, were estimated at 9.76-million tonnes grading 2 g/t gold.
Resources: Total measured and indicated resources as at September 30, 2020, were estimated at 16.24-million tonnes grading 1.83 g/t gold. Inferred resources were estimated at six-million tonnes grading 2.77 g/t gold.
Mining Method: Openpit.
Major Infrastructure and Equipment: The mine includes a central administration building and medical facility; mining, geology, survey, mining engineering, supply, environment and safety offices; a core shed; a nursery; light and heavy equipment workshops; warehouse storage facilities; a tyre shop; refuelling and washing bays; fire-fighting systems; and explosives magazines. The project also incorporates a carbon-in-leach gold plant with administration buildings, a workshop, a power generation and distribution facility, a security office, a sample preparation and assay laboratory, a storage area and a reagent preparation facility.
The mine is connected to the national electrical grid by a 69 kV, 20 MVA power line through the local power supply authority Companhia de Eletricidade do Amapá. Owing to concerns about line stability, this currently supplies 11 MW to the site. Power is also provided by an independent 11 MW continuous rated diesel-powered generation system. Water is provided from recycled process water and water storage dams.
The plant contains mechanical treatment and chemical process areas. The other major infrastructure buildings include the reagents storage warehouse, reagents preparation plant, chemical and process laboratories, tailings dam and power distribution system. The main administration area includes maintenance workshops, mine administration facilities, technical services offices, stores warehouse, a core yard, a mess facility and a medical centre.
Prospects: None stated.
Contact Details:
Great Panther
Tel +1 604 608 1766
Email info@greatpanther.com
Website https://www.greatpanther.com/