The Buckreef project area hosts over 1.2 km of continuous mineralization, with two key deposits: Buckreef Main, which is open in all directions, and Buckreef West.
Tanzanian Gold is in the process of de-risking and advancing the project through the ramp-up of an open-pit oxide pilot treatment plant currently running at 4.5 tonnes per hour to a much larger plant of 36 tonnes per hour for an expected annual production of 15,000 to 20,000 oz.
The study envisages a plant capable of processing up to 2.7 million tonnes of mineralised material annually and is expected to produce 150,000-175,000 oz.
In 2018, a prefeasibility study for an underground mine for the sulphide component of Buckreef envisioned a 16-year underground operation producing 51,000 oz.
Initial capital costs were pegged at US$76.50 million, with US$22.95 million budgeted for sustaining capital over the life of the mine.
Last year the company updated Buckreef’s mineral resource estimate and outlined 35.89 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 1.77 grams gold per tonne for 2.04 million contained oz.
In February, initial metallurgical testing of diamond core samples grading between 0.54 gram and 19.4 grams gold for the sulphide component of the project showed gold recoveries of between 85.3% and 95.4%.
“Buckreef is under a special mining licence permitted for oxide and sulphide operations, which allows it to advance from small production to large production without the need for re-permitting,” explained Mullowney, who joined Tanzanian Gold in December.
He also set about changing the company culture, bringing on a new management team.
Since acquiring its 55% stake in the project, Tanzanian Gold has completed preliminary due diligence of previous exploration work, including approximately 30,000 soil samples, 202,000 metres of RC drilling, 124,000 metres of air-core drilling, and 28,000 metres of diamond core drilling conducted by Iamgold between 2006-2010.
“There is a great opportunity to accelerate this project extremely quickly and to generate value as we transition from exploration to production,” said Mullowney.
Dear user, please be aware that we use cookies to help users navigate our website content and to help us understand how we can improve the user experience.