Resource World Magazine

J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 1 9 www.resourceworld.com 9 ELDORADO GOLD keeping a close eye on the political situation there in the hope that a new government will see that developing Skouries is a win-win – not only for Eldorado – but also for the Greek economy. Situated in the Halkidiki Peninsula of Northern Greece in the Serbo-Macedonian ore belt, Skouries is expected to produce 140,000 ounces of gold and 67 million pounds of copper annually during an estimated mine life of 23 years. Skouries is located on concessions that also contain the Olympias Mine, which produced almost 10,000 ounces of gold during the first quarter of 2019. The Skouries gold-copper porphyry project is designed as a two-phase mining operation that produces a very clean gold- copper concentrate and is uniquely designed to deploy the best available technologies for tailings disposal, Burns said. Phase one consists of an open pit mine and underground mine that will operate for 10 years. Phase 2 consists of mining from the underground mine for a further 13 years. "In the second half of the mine life, the tailings would be depos - ited back into the open pit. The open pit would be back filled and therefore fully reclaimed," he said. "We have the environmental permit in hand which is usually the tougher permit to get," Burns said. "What we need is a number of construction permits." The company also needs a permit to relo - cate an ancient furnace, dating back to the days of Alexander the Great (356 BC to 323 BC). Investment, industry and exports are integral to economic growth in Greece. With US$1 billion already invested in devel- opment of its assets in Halkidiki and approximately 2,000 jobs created to date, Eldorado's mines have the potential to support Greece's long term economic development. "We have got the right projects to be able to move forward if we can develop that win-win formula," Burns said. When Eldorado announced its first quarter results on May 2, 2019, there was no update on the situation at Skouries, as it is on care and maintenance. While the company had a solid operational quarter, it reported a higher than expected first quarter loss due to concentrate ship - ment delays at the Efemcukuru gold mine in Turkey. Production for the first quarter was 83,000 ounces at a total cash cost of US $652 an ounce and an AISC of $1,132 an ounce. However, due to the shipment delays in Turkey they only sold 43,074 ounces. The Efemcukuru Mine produces a gold pyrite concentrate that is shipped to various customers. However, a dispute with one of the customers during the first quarter resulted in a delay in con - centrate sales. "We have since brought additional customers into play and are confident that we will pull down that build up in inventory over the second and third quarters of this year," Burns said. "That will result in cash flow generation and improvement in earnings," he said. "By the end of the year, we believe we will be right on track with what we expected." Meanwhile, Burns said he is pleased to see that crushing and placing of ore on the heap leach has resumed at the Kisladag Mine following a decision not to invest $520 million in the construc - tion of a mill. The company said further test work is underway to determine the effects of 250-day leach cycles on recoveries related to deeper material in the Kisladag open pit. Results of the tests are expected by late 2019 or early 2020, the company has said. For roughly a decade, Kisladag consistently delivered heap leach recoveries of about 60% or slightly higher than that for gold. "Then, in late 2017, we found that those historical recoveries were starting to drop off," Burns said. He said an enormous amount of test work has been done over the last 18 months to better under - stand why this happened. "What we have found is that the gold deportment at depth has changed a bit. Gold is associated with feldspar rock that doesn't crush as finely, and therefore doesn't expose as much of the gold." The test work over the last year has indicated that by going to a longer leach cycle, Eldorado can actually move those recoveries back up towards the 60% range, Burns said. n

• Cover