Kişladağ mine
| Summary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Description The Kişladağ gold mine is the largest gold mine in Turkey. We advanced Kişladağ from exploration discovery through development to construction and production. Kişladağ has been developed as 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 undertaking a feasibility engineering study to optimize Kisladag production, with results anticipated by year end. Kişladağ Mine Site 
Resources (Gold) As of October 27, 2009
Reserves (Gold) As of December 31, 2008
Files  Kişladağ Project Feasibility Study (PDF) Kişladağ Project Feasibility Study Cost Update Executive Summary (PDF)
Last update: October 30, 2009. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Location | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Kişladağ is situated between the major centers of Izmir (180 kilometers to the west) and Ankara (350 kilometers to the northeast), in Uşak province. The city of Uşak 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: August 11, 2009. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 Kişladağ region, the volcanoes erupted onto a basement of schist at the northeast margin of the Menderes Massif. Gold mineralization is hosted by a number of latitic intrusive bodies. The Gökgöz Tepe alteration zone hosting the Kişladağ deposit covers approximately 12 square kilometers. At Gökgöz, a coarsely porphyritic latite is host to the bulk of the gold mineralization and has undergone extensive and intensive hydrothermal alteration. Gold mineralization 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 veining and brecciation and is accompanied by small amounts of base metals, principally zinc and molybdenum. Oxidation in the deposit is shallow over the barren intrusive but extends to depths of 40 to 50 meters to the west and east. Last update: August 11, 2009. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 10,000,000 tonnes per year, with an additional 8,500,000 tonnes of waste moved annually. 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. In April 2009 we provided a summary of the results of a recently completed internal study that identified opportunities to effectively increase annual gold production by 75,000 to 100,000 ounces and lower unit costs to approximately $250-275/oz, starting in 2011. This study forms the basis of the feasibility engineering study that is anticipated to be released by year end. Last update: October 30, 2009. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Related News | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Photo Gallery | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Kisladag Gallery | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Photo GalleryClick on the picture to enlarge | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
)
