Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/1012424
A U G U S T / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 www.resourceworld.com 37 processed with an activated carbon leach system following various crushing and gravity separation operations. With hardly any arsenic, mercury, or lead, the process is simple and recovery is estimated at 65 to 92%. The doré bars contain electrum with 55-60% gold and 30-40% silver with cop- per credits. Continued geological exploration and drilling are anticipated to expand mine life beyond the 13-year estimate based on known resources. The next target is the Snake Pit, covering 77 acres (31 ha). Geological projections might warrant future underground mining in this area. The latest technical report estimated that the Haile gold mine contains 536 mil- lion tonnes of ore with a strip ratio of 8.74, amounting to potential production of more than 3 million ounces of gold grading 1.71 g/t gold. In another part of the report, Haile Mine reserves were quoted from one study as 4.4 million ounces in comparison to other South Carolina mines – Ridgeway at 1.44 million ounces and Brewer with 0.2 million ounces of gold. A recent Haile Mine fact sheet gives gold reserves at 3.46 mil- lion ounces with anticipated annual average production at 189,000 ounces of gold. What does the Haile Gold Mine do for the communities of the town of Kershaw and Lancaster County? Operations provide some 500 direct jobs (including employ- ees and contractors) for at least the next dozen years with 89% of workers from local communities. For every on-site job, about three to five new jobs arise in the community. The level of education in the county is not only raised but supported by the efforts of the company's programs and there are other improvements such as reviving real estate and building a family park in Kershaw. OceanaGold has promised a future com- mitment of $70 million on environmental mitigation, reclamation, and restoration. Since the same land has been mined for two centuries, there is no further dis- ruption of landscape, only deeper pits to reclaim and with a thick covering of coastal plain sandy sediments, excellent material is already there to use as fill. The new state-of-the-art water treatment facil- ity returns water from the mine processing plant back into the land, which is cleaner than the drinking water of many commu- nities in the United States. In partnership with US Fish and Wildlife Service and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, reintro- duction of a critically endangered species of freshwater bivalve heelsplitter mussels back into the wild in Flat Creek has been initiated. OceanaGold also owns and operates producing gold mines in other parts of the world, notably the Didipio gold-copper mine on the Philippine island of Luzon; the high-grade Waihi Gold Mine on New Zealand's North Island; and a large gold mining camp at Macraes Goldfield on New Zealand's South Island. n FIELD REPORT