Sep 18 2019
Monument Mining Limited has announced that a trial mining program will begin in October, 2019 at Peranggih Gold Prospect.
The access road upgrade from Peranggih to Selinsing Plant Site. (Image credit: Monument Mining)
The existing Selinsing oxide gold processing plant will be fed with the bulk sample material to establish the average grade of the close-spaced drilled region, to measure the presence of coarse gold, and to examine the metallurgical performance at plant scale.
Trial mining preparation work was initiated on August 15th, 2019, mainly to establish access roads from the Peranggih mining site to the Selinsing production site. As part of the work, permits were obtained to utilize 1.5 km of a public road as well as 10 km of private roads from stakeholders, and access road construction and site clearance were completed.
Access Road Preparation
The Peranggih access road will pass via a current upgraded track in the Felcra (Federal Land Consolidated and Rehabilitation Agent) plantation, a forestry region, the public road, and also the properties of several private landholders.
With regards to the road construction and assessment, Monument Mining reached an agreement with all stakeholders, which included Felcra, private landholders, the Forestry Department, and the Public Works Department of Pahang State.
The government has already established the public infrastructure. This includes two main bridges across Jelai Kecil and Telom rivers that will be used for the haulage. For compliance assurance, the authority will receive a security deposit of USD $60,000.
Monument Mining held a public engagement meeting for the local villagers and community to hear the decision on trial mining. The possible environment effect of full-fledged mining activities such as sedimentation and erosion that may occur during the course of mining operations and dust caused by the movement of traffic were discussed. Environmental risk and safety control system were also introduced at the meeting.
Monument Mining has assured the local community that any negative effect on the surrounding setting will be mitigated in accordance with industry standards. High environmental standards have been executed at the Selinsing Gold Mine and these will be applied to all of Monument Mining’s operations.
The haulage road construction involves placing road base material on the present track, developing the culvert crossings, and also grading the surface of the road. The costs involved in the total road upgrading operation are predicted to be around USD $150,000. It is likely to be concluded by the end of September, 2019.
Trial Mining
It will take one month to conclude trial mining, including mining and feeding into the mill of around 15,000 tons of initial bulk samples. This will enable Monument Mining to acquire a more consistent estimate of gold grades at the Peranggih mining site, and make a comparison with the grade control and exploration drilling.
The preliminary bulk samples will be chosen from the exposed mineralization located in the historic mining region at Central Peranggih, where a 5 m x 5 m close-spaced RAB drilling program was concluded in November 28th, 2017.
The drill program effectively defined a higher grade gold material zone at Peranggih Central by testing a region of 150 m strike length x 20 m depth x 80 m width, known to host a considerable amount of coarse gold in a hydrothermal breccia system. In Central Peranggih, the old site is bounded to the South and North by abandoned mining ponds that have not been tested yet for mineralization by drilling.
Approval has been given by the Pahang State Mineral and Geoscience Department to begin the bulk sampling program. In the early 1990s, local miners had carried out mining activities, leaving behind a number of small mining ponds as well as a negligible amount of tailings and historical ore stockpiles. Granted at Peranggih, the mining lease has been registered on March 15th, 2019 and will be valid for a decade till March 14th, 2029.
The bulk sample is anticipated to be free digging and made up of oxide material. Both matrix-supported and clast-supported quartz breccia contained gold mineralization. The breccia matrix was observed to host considerable coarse-free gold.
The matrix was found to be friable and contained tiny rock fragments and clay minerals, and also a mixture of ore and gangue minerals. The gold mineralization is believed to be linked with hydraulic fracturing and related boiling caused by pressure release.
Exploration Program
Based on the result of the trial mining/bulk sampling program, a follow-up exploration program may be developed to test neighboring regions (for example, the North Pond), and also regions inside the district with analogous occurrences of brecciated material.
During 2019, structural targets associated with shear structures have been created within the Peranggih area. Furthermore, a broad-spaced 100 m x 50 m soil sampling program has been concluded in the third quarter. This was done to test the extension of the northwest-trending structure hosting the Peranggih mineralization. Samples have been dispatched to Intertek, Perth and results are likely to be obtained in later September, 2019.