Golden pride
The Golden Pride mine is located in Tanzania, East Africa, 750km north-west of the port of Dar es Salaam and 200km south of Lake Victoria. Resolute has a 100% interest in the project through its Tanzanian subsidiary, Resolute (Tanzania) Limited.
Ore for the Golden Pride Operations was sourced from the Golden Pride open pit and low grade oxide stockpiles. The ore is treated using conventional three stage crushing, ball milling and carbon-in-pulp processing at the rate of 3Mtpa.
Operations
The 2009 financial year produced 127,047 (2008: 150,224) ounces of gold at a cash cost of US$488 (2008: US$449) per ounce.
Plant throughput reached record tonnes of 3.45 (2008: 2.5) million tonnes at an average head grade of 1.24g/t Au (2008: 2.04g/t) and a recovery rate of 92.5% (2008: 90%).
Gold production decreased from the previous year with reduced grade from the open pit together with significant blending of low grade stockpiled ore for plant feed. Blending of this low grade oxide ore assisted with plant throughput and gold recoveries with the overall cost per ounce marginally higher.
The open pit mined 5.0 million cubic metres of material at an increased strip ratio of 9.4:1 (2008: 4.8:1). The increase in waste movement was predominately from the central pit cutback so that ore mining could commence towards year end. Waste stripping has also commenced on the western section of the open pit.
The Golden Pride mine has now produced in excess of 1.68 million ounces of gold since commissioning in 1998.
Outlook
The coming year should see an increase in gold production with ore grade from the open pit increasing as the fresher ore is exposed in the central pit. The majority of the ore from the central pit will be mined in the first half of the year so that weather conditions do not hinder mine production. Minimal ore will be exposed during the stripping of the western pit.
Waste stripping of the western pit will continue with material from this cutback being used in the wall raising of the tailing storage facilities.
Plant throughput will decrease from the record tonnage of the past year. The increase in fresh material with a limited amount of low grade oxide blend will see a slowing of the circuit to maintain gold recoveries.
