Kişladağ mine
| Summary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DescriptionThe Kişladağ gold mine is the largest gold mine in Turkey. We advanced Kişladağ from an exploration discovery through development to construction and production. Kişladağ is a low grade, bulk tonnage open pit operation using heap leaching for gold recovery. The mine operates at a total ore throughput of 10 million tonnes per year. We are implementing the expansion project that will increase production to 12 million tonnes per year commencing in 2011. Capital expenditure for the project is budgeted at $40 million. In Q1 2010, we produced 82,240 ounces of gold at a cash operating cost of $305 per ounce, a quarterly record for gold production at Kişladağ. The increased production resulted from improvements to the processing circuit with the introduction of intermediate leaching and larger carbon columns. Kişladağ Mine Site 
Resources and ReservesAs of December 31, 2009
Files Kişladağ Gold Mine Technical Report (PDF)
Kişladağ Project Feasibility Study Cost Update Executive Summary (PDF)
Kişladağ Project Feasibility Study (PDF)
Last update: May 20, 2010. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Kişladağ mine is located 180 kilometres east of Izmir and 350 kilometres southwest of Ankara, in Uşak Province. The city of Uşak with a population of 170,000 is the closest large population centre, located 35 kilometers to the northeast. Access to the site is via all-weather paved roads serving several small villages in the immediate area. Kişladağ sits on the western edge of the Anatolian Plateau, in gentle rolling topography, at an elevation of approximately 1,000 meters. The climate is arid with hot summers and cold winters. Economic activity in the area consists of a mixture of subsistence farming and grazing. Last update: April 7, 2010. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Geology & Mineralization | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kişladağ lies within one of several mid- to late-Tertiary volcanic complexes in western Turkey, related to subduction along the Hellenic Trench southwest of Turkey. In the KiÃ...ŸladaÃ"Ÿ region, the volcanic complexes erupted onto a basement of schist at the northeast margin of the Menderes Massif. Porphyry-style gold mineralization is hosted by a number of latitic intrusive bodies. The Gökgöz Tepe alteration zone, which encloses the Kişladağ deposit, covers approximately 12 square kilometers. Intensely-altered coarsely porphyritic latite is host to the bulk of the gold mineralization. The ore body forms an annular zone around a later weakly mineralized stock of similar composition. Gold is associated with multiple phases of tourmaline-pyrite, pyrite, and quartz-pyrite veins and breccias, and is accompanied by small amounts of base metals, principally zinc and molybdenum. Oxidation in the deposit is shallow over the barren intrusion but extends to depths of 40 to 50 meters to the west and east. Last update: April 7, 2010. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mining & Processing | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Initial mining at Kişladağ was carried out by a local contractor using conventional earth-moving equipment. An owner-operated fleet of 150 tonne haul trucks and equivalent loading equipment was brought into operation in Q3 2008. Average ore production is 10 million tonnes per year, with an additional 8,500,000 tonnes of waste moved annually. We are implementing the expansion project during 2010 that will increase production to 12 million tonnes per year commencing in 2011. A three-stage crushing system using a gyratory crusher and four cone crushers reduces the run-of-mine ore to 80% passing 6.3 mm in size for leaching. Conveyors are used to transfer and distribute the material onto the leach pad in 10 meter lifts for leaching. A conventional carbon adsorption facility (ADR plant) is used to recover the gold from process solutions to a final gold dore product. Kişladağ cash costs have been impacted by increases in price of fuel, reagents, consumables as well as a slight decline in the ore grade and increase in the waste stripping. The overall effects have however been partially offset by process efficiency improvements. Last update: May 20, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kişladağ Exploration | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To take full advantage of the Kişladağ mine's processing facilities, we continue to look for new opportunities in the area surrounding the mine. In 2009 we increased Kişladağ's proven and probable gold reserves to 6.8 million ounces and increased measured and indicated gold resources to 10.3 million ounces. This increase is mostly due to the positive results of the 2009 drill program (13 holes totalling 9,509 meters). The results extended both the higher grade gold zone and the extent of known gold mineralization relative to the limits outlined in 2008. During 2010, Eldorado has completed over 20,000 meters of drilling at the Kişladağ mine. Results of this drilling include: - Delineation of new contiguous high-grade gold zones within Intrusion 2A, in areas of the deposit that were originally modelled to contain low gold grades and waste sub-zones; - Further definition of the southeast margin high-grade zone, discovered in 2009 and announced in the Q1 2010 exploration summary. This steeply-dipping zone has now been traced over an east-west strike extent of approximately 300 meters, and lies just outside the boundary of the design pit; - Identification of high-grade zones along the Intrusion 3 - Intrusion 1 contact in the northwest deposit area. New drilling has reduced the extent of the late- to post- mineral Intrusion 3, providing a net increase in the volume of strongly mineralized Intrusion 1. Drilling at Kişladağ is ongoing, and is now testing western extensions to the deposit and downdip projections of the southeast margin mineralized zone. Kişladağ Section Showing New Mineralized Zones, Southern Area (Click to enlarge)  Kişladağ Plan (Click to enlarge)  Last update: June 28, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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