Member Info for Jim06

From memory, on about a 2-3% head grade we bagged a 20-25% copper concentrate containing around 2 ounces Au per tonne of Cu concentrate. I know flotation treatment methods have been further improved with technology. Certainly they also have with gravity concentration on pre-flotation ore. Can’t see any problems so far. Recoveries should be good.

Cheers

Sounds like the same ore structure as under the Main Dome open cut in Telfer’s first u/g venture in the early 90’s. Crystalline, called ‘supergene’ ore which floated copper freely (gold smelted from concentrate).

They didn’t have ‘massive buy’ in the opinion box, so I’ll have to settle with ‘strong buy’
There are weak hands and there are strong hands. Just a bit of a transfer going on between the weak and the strong.

Cheers

Hi
For anyone seeing the aerial photo (Figure 1) included in this excellent summary for the first time. The lines running top left to bottom right are not roads or tracks, they are mostly the top of sand dunes (some up to 80 metres high).
Back of beyond was mentioned yesterday.
Cheers

A bit. Mainly around oxide & sulphide cyanide treatment. Two plants I know that do/did both were Centamin at the Sukari Mine in Egypt (I helped commission and run) and Lake Cowal in NSW (I was involved in a minor way when Barrick had it and were commissioning it). There might be something on the internet.

Cheers

Hi Bamps

I have an opinion on this but will wait for a quieter time - past wealth tax, MRE, etc.

Cheers

Telfer is beyond the back of beyond. An anecdote - When I lived there with my family many years back my wife used to take the (4) kids to 80 Mile Beach for the weekend camping (1000 km round trip), but not before she had undertaken SAS survival training (company mandate) and supplied with a basic survival kit ( in a soap box if you can believe). 1000’s of wild camels, goats, donkeys and horses roaming the desert area. Dirt road all the way to Mt Goldsworthy (used to be iron ore mine). No mobiles in those days.

Cheers

Yep, Byrnecut the contractor. Back in the day Eltins opened the first underground drive at the bottom of the Main Dome open cut to access supergene ore. So good we had to blend off to treat it.

Good comment. Prudence is a virtue. I’ve been in the mining game (junior to manager) since 1979 and an investor since mid 89 when young kids didn’t consume all my money and I’ve seen it all (I hope). Should the implied occur I will be happy to average down in this stock all the way. Too much ****e happening in the world to judge either way. By the way, of my 41 years in the game 21 were in gold, the rest copper, nickel, , cobalt and presently graphite (which is also on a tear by the way - EV could be bigger than even gold). Check out SYR on ASX.

Cheers

Hi strudel

At one point gold went as low as 250 an ounce or so. Big miners survive Armageddon because they have 20 pr 30 operations in different cost environments and average income and outgoings. Big cost operations are simply put into hibernation. A bit cut throat but that’s how these companies have survived decades of production.

Cheers

If it does broach 20-25 ever again I’m in there boots, bells and all. Based on what we know minus Scally still a brilliant long term investment.

Cheers

Bamps
Discussion yesterday. Copper ‘unit’ seems to be to do with ballistics - chamber or barrel pressure. Measured in psi in the old money and Kpa now. Couldn’t find any reference to tons. Nothing to do with the shipload of copper we want to see.
Cheers

I get you. From memory it is a pressure measurement.
I only know copper mineral by weight, which has traditionally been in lbs

Cheers

They were pounds in those days. 2200 pounds in a metric tonne. If that’s what you are after.

As an aside I had a look at a job in 2004 at the Freeport mine in West Papua. That year they produced 2.5 million ounces of gold and 1.4 billion pounds of copper. With copper credit they produced gold at minus 5 dollars an ounce!!

Imagine that

They (Lamborghini) must be good - Jeremy Clarkson has one. So big he’s destroyed a few fences with it!

ha ha, fair enough marmaris. I'm on Aussie time so celebrated 30 p last night

Hi all
A question was asked about the treatment plant at Telfer.
Go the the Newcrest website for a brief description and google more using 'telfer circuit' but basically it is a dual train circuit, oxide and sulphide, oxide being treated with cyanide in a CIL (Carbon-in-Leach) circuit and sulphide through a flotation circuit to achieve a high mineral concentrate. Dotted through early in each circuit will be Knelson Concentrators to remove coarse gold fragments by gravity (a KC is like a large high speed spin dryer) for more or less direct gold room treatment, as well as fine regrind circuits to improve recovery.
As Hav (we expect) will be providing continued production the current circuit may handle it (as their other resource drops off) but if we are correct in a number of other deposits proving economic they may want to increase production. This can be done by simply duplicating the circuits they have.
From drilling, ore blocks have a known grade, confirmed on the ROM (Run of Mine) pad by geotechnical staff face-sampling ore stockpiles before it is blended and fed to the respective crushing and milling circuits before eventual treatment. Sampling occurs throughout the circuit with a Met Lab running 24/7 and providing results, mostly within the hour, to ensure optimum recovery. These samples verify automatic sampling and in-stream analysis systems. Particularly in flotation it is important as you only get one grab at high recovery before the slurry is pumped to the tailings dam.
For those wanting to understand CIL (or CIP, another similar technique) for oxide treatment best to google, but essentially gold is dissolved in cyanide in a high pH environment using lime (cyanide gases off - nasty - at pH levels below 9.5). The dissolved gold is contacted/adsorbed onto tiny pieces of carbon. The carbon is screened from the slurry and further treated (eluted) making it suitable for electro-winning and refining in the gold room. The resultant precipitated sludge from the EW/ER is treated in a furnace (gold melts at around 1060 C) then poured into moulds, cooled and cleaned up and there you have your shiny gold bar - normally around 94/95% gold. It is further refined to 99.9% purity at the Perth Mint.
From the sulphide circuit copper concentrate, also containing gold, will be shipped of to Port Headland and smelted elsewhere, with a credit received for the gold.

Hope this helps rather than confuses

I'd like see the metallurgical tests of the fresh ore as they proceed the HAV decline towards the ore zone. Fresh rock that is not as hard will mean less power draw, and less requirement for reagents all mean less treatment costs per tonne.

More chocolates per ounce for all, although nothing to say ore will be any different at the moment.

Cheers

Personally, I am wondering if this all gives GGP leverage to further JV (or consume) the neighbours, such as Antipa and Artemis. How are they going to get a look in otherwise?

GLA