Oct 24 2019
Monument Mining Limited has reported the pouring of the 1000th gold bar at its Selinsing Gold Mine in Malaysia on October 16th, 2019. As a result, the total gold production so far amounts to more than 304,000 ounces since the start of gold production in 2010.
1,000th Gold Bar Poured through the Selinsing Gold Mine Plant in Malaysia. (Image credit: Monument Mining Limited)
This major achievement was celebrated by hosting a gold pour ceremony at the site.
It is with great pleasure that we celebrated this landmark 1,000th gold bar, which is a testament to our successful operations and the continuous hard work that has been put in by our employees and management team here at the Selinsing Gold Mine. Selinsing operation team is well prepared to place the new life of mine into production through the plant upgrade subject to funding.
Charlie Northfield, General Manager, Selinsing Gold Mine
Selinsing Gold Mine Overview
The Selinsing Gold Mine has been successfully producing gold for almost a decade. Up until June 30th, 2019, it has generated 297,868 oz of gold at a mean cost of $484/oz for total gross revenue of $400 million, where 4.77 Mt ore was mined at a mean grade of 1.56 g/t and a recovery rate of 79.5%. A 1-m tpa gold oxide traditional processing plant carried out the production.
The Reserves and Resources have been completely substituted—for which the cutoff date was March 31st, 2018, reported in its NI43-101 Feasibility Study done by Snowden Mining Industry Consultants Pty Ltd dated January 31st, 2019 (the “Snowden NI 43-101 Technical Study”)—for a nearly six-year life of mine (“LOM”) with an NPV of $27.56 million at a gold cost of $1300/oz.
In this new LOM, in total, 5.7 million tons of ore would be treated at a mean grade of 1.45 g/t for 223 koz, at a cost of $863.67/ounce. After deducting tax, the net cash flow generated by the Selinsing Gold Mine Project would be $97.00 million from operations, or a net capital spending of $45.00 million. At present, the company is making efforts to offer funds for the gold plant upgrade construction.
Recent Progress at Selinsing Gold Mine
Selinsing production will keep producing capital through the transitional leachable sulfide ore mining at Selinsing Pit 5/6, along with the mining of remaining oxide to close the gap between the transition and sulfide production. In the NI 43-101 Technical Report, it has been stated that at Pit 5/6, the total Resource left was 493,991 tons at a mean grade of 1.65 g/t Au.
Further metallurgical testwork was carried out on recently drilled leachable transitional ore samples at Buffalo Reef (“BR”) pits to enhance recoveries at the current oxide processing plant by incorporating extra reagents and mixing with super low oxide ore materials.
Based on the testwork success, the mining and processing of BR leachable transition ore will be scheduled for the fourth quarter of the 2020 fiscal year. According to the Snowden NI43-101 Technical Study, the BR South and Central deposits contained 641,000 tons of transition ore at a grade of 1.78 g/t Au, whereas BR North contained a further 73,000 tons at 1.31 g/t Au.
At the Peranggih Gold Prospect, a trial mining program started in October. The bulk sample material will be supplied to the current Selinsing oxide gold processing plant to verify the average grade of the close-spaced drilled area, to evaluate the existence of coarse gold and to analyze the metallurgical performance at plant scale.
A drill program at Selinsing Pit 4 was also finished, and the findings will be reported shortly. Mining is planned to supply those materials into the mill based on an internal economic evaluation.
Design of the R&D pilot plant for the Selinsing Gold Sulphide Project was finished in-house to train workers. Specifications of equipment have been set and preliminary quotations have been obtained from potential suppliers, who will place high orders once funding is ready.
Construction of the latest raise of the tailings storage facility is ongoing, with the chief embankment’s fill height of 533.3 m RL. The current increase to 533.3 m RL will offer enough storage for tailings deposited until the end of the fiscal year 2020. The development of the tailings storage facility to the final height of 540 m RL is in progress.