BEREZITOVY

For more information, please see Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves Press Release

The Berezitovy mine is a well-established open pit. The Berezitovy processing plant contains crushing, SAG and ball milling and CIP circuits, a tailings water filter plant and a dry tailings storage facility, a water reservoir and potable water wells located on the Khaikta River, sanitary landfills, a sewage treatment plant, mine water settling ponds. Berezitovy has recently expanded to include a heap leach operation to treat low-grade ore.

Milling and Classification

Nordgold’s open pit operations use conventional surface mining methods involving drilling and blasting, followed by a load and haul process allowing for selective mining of the ore. Ore from the pit is then transported to a designated stockpile and fed into a crushing circuit. The crushed material is then moved onto a conveyor, which delivers the ore to a grinding circuit consisting of SAG and ball mills. The milled product is then thickened and leached into a CIP circuit.

Cyanide leaching and sorption

The cyanidation of the milled ore is carried out in the CIP or CIL circuit. During the CIP or CIL stage, pulp flows through several tanks where sodium cyanide and oxygen have been added to dissolve gold into solution. In the absorption stage, this solution flows through several tanks containing activated carbon. Gold then attaches onto the activated carbon, which flows counter current to the pulp, while screens separate the barren pulp from the gold-loaded carbon.

Elution

The final gold loaded carbon is removed and washed before undergoing elution. Elution is achieved by introducing the gold loaded carbon to a solution of sodium cyanide at a high temperature (>110°C) and under high pressure. This results in the reversal of the attachment process, with the gold detaching from the carbon back into solution. This produces a small volume of solution with a high gold concentration.

Electrowinning

The gold loaded eluate solution that emerges from the elution process is passed through electrowinning cells, where gold is deposited onto the cells’ cathodes.

Smelting

The cathodes then undergo a smelting process, further refining the gold and leading to the eventual production of gold ingots suitable for transport to a refinery.

• Open pit waste stripping of Stage 3 & 4 and Stage 5 continues in 2018, accessing ore for processing in 2019.
• Development of two underground Declines to access first ore from the 395mRL and 380mRL is in progress and is expected in H2 2018. First ore production from long-hole open stopes are planned for H2 2018.
• Processing projects are focused on automation of pH control, automation of cyclone feed and adsorption columns on thickener overflow.
• Regional exploration is focused on the Khaikta area.