Eastern Dragon
| Summary | |||||||||||||||||||||||
DESCRIPTIONEastern Dragon is a high-grade, epithermal, gold-silver vein deposit located in Heilongjiang Province, China.Construction at Eastern Dragon Project, China 
Construction activity at Eastern Dragon continued throughout Q3 2011. The majority of civil work on site was completed and we continued to install structural steel around the crushing and ore storage facilities. At quarter end, ancillary facilities at site neared and we aim to finish any outside work before the winter season sets in. Piping and electrical installations in the process area will be completed during the winter months. Further civil works to prepare the tailings storage site and the open pit and rock dumps will be carried over into 2012 pending the receipt of the Project Permit Approval. Capital expenditures to complete construction will be $45 million. We expect to commission the mine and start production in 2014. The initial production will come from a small, high-grade open pit while we develop the underground access. Eldorado has a 95% equity interest in the Lode 5 Exploration Licence, with the remainder held by a local joint-venture partner. Eldorado also holds a 90% contractual interest and a pre-emptive right over a further 5% in the entity which will hold 100% of the 53 square kilometre exploration licence surrounding Lode 5 (known as EL53). In Q1 2010 we paid $11 million as part of our agreement to consolidate the EL53 exploration joint venture with the Lode 5 joint venture. Files SGX Scheme Booklet 2009 (PDF)
Last update: December 17, 2012. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 Eastern Dragon Lode 5 is located in northern China's Heilongjiang Province, approximately 45 kilometres south-east of the town of Xunke, which is adjacent to the Heilongjiang River that forms the border with Russia. The project site is on public land in lightly forested rolling hills with water nearby. Winters are severe, with the exploration field season restricted to April to October each year. Last update: April 8, 2010. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Geology & Mineralization | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Eastern Dragon Lode 5 deposit is a low-sulphidation vein/breccia system contained within a granodioritic intrusion and overlying volcanic host rocks. The surrounding EL53 area contains numerous outcropping quartz veins similar to the Lode 5 veins. Previously trenching and drilling of these veins has identified numerous anomalous to high-grade gold occurrences. Eastern Dragon Exploration District 
Last update: April 8, 2010. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mining & Processing | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Eastern Dragon project will complete construction in Q3 2012 and will then process 58,000 tonnes of ore at 16.82 g/t Au and 128 g/t Ag. Capital spending for 2012 to complete project construction is estimated to be $45 million. Initial mining at Eastern Dragon will be carried out using open pit mining methods. Concurrent with this operation a surface portal will be constructed at the south end of the open pit to provide access to the deposit below the planned pit bottom. The underground operation will be developed as a ramp access trackless operation. Bench and fill methods will be used as the primary underground excavation method with limited cut and fill where ground conditions require closer support. Production of ore from the mine will begin at approximately 500 tpd, ramping up to 1,000 tpd in the second year of operation. Processing of the ore will be done using a conventional crushing, grinding and carbon in leach (CIL) circuit. Recovery of gold is expected to be in the range of 95% with silver recovery at 80%. Tailings will be detoxified and dewatered prior to impoundment in a surface tailings facility. Last update: January 25, 2012. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Exploration | |||||||||||||||||||||||
EASTERN DRAGON REGION (HEILONGJIANG)Exploration plans for the Eastern Dragon area include both stepout drilling of the Lode 5 orebody and drill testing of high grade veins on the surrounding exploration license. The program will commence once consolidation of the underlying licenses has been completed.  Last update: January 25, 2012. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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