Matsa Resources announced that its board has decided to begin mining at its 100% owned Red Dog gold deposit, which has a short mine life of only 3 months.
Image: The company is expected to commence mining activities in early August. Photo courtesy of Matsa Resources Limited.
The company is expected to commence mining activities at Red Dog gold deposit in early August.
While AngloGold Ashanti will purchase all ore produced at the Red Dog gold deposit, it will be treated at Sunrise Dam Gold Mine (SDGM) treatment facilities.
Matsa said in a statement: “The board of Matsa has decided to commence mining at the Red Dog gold deposit as soon as possible. The capital and operational cash requirements of the mine can be funded by Matsa’s existing cash reserves without the need to raise any additional capital.
“All necessary approvals and ore purchase agreement are in place, with contracts for mining and haulage being finalised. Mining activities will commence in early August.”
With technical and management direction from Matsa, mining at the deposit will be carried out by a mining contractor. The mine comprises one open pit and incorporates drill and blast, load and haul and ore and waste management tasks.
Using a 120 -130t excavator and a fleet of 777 dump trucks, the mining is scheduled to operate at nearly 30,000 bank cubic metres (BCM) per month.
While the completion of mining of the open pit is scheduled to take two months, ore haulage to the mill will take a month.
The Red Dog gold deposit is located just north of Mount Celia Road and west of the Saracen Haul Rd near Mt Howe Well, approximately 25km west of Matsa’s Fortitude Gold Mine.
Consisting primarily of strong transitional to fresh material, the Red Dog pit is less than 20m deep, according to the company.
Discovered by Whim Creek Consolidated in 1984, Red Dog was formerly known as Tin Dog.