ELDORADO GOLD
Trucking ore from the Kisladag open pit
“ We ’ re currently going through an expansion so we ’ ll be looking at increasing annual production from 12.5 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes ”
– Paul Wright , CEO was first discovered by Eldorado using traditional grass roots techniques including satellite imagery followed up by geochemical sampling , drilling and then various stages of engineering , permitting and construction .
Wright added : “ We ’ re currently going through an expansion so we ’ ll be looking at increasing annual production from 12.5 million tonnes to 20 million tonnes . The expansion will bring the mine life to 16 years .” Eldorado is looking to add a parallel crushing circuit and expanding the ADR plant to provide for the additional capacity .
Located in Western Turkey , the Efemcukuru mine is a high grade , underground gold operation . While one of the smaller mines for Eldorado , the project is currently processing over 400,000 tonnes per year .
“ It ’ s an impressive operation not only because of the ore body and the operating performance , but also because the project is only 30 kilometres away from a city of 3 million people ,” said Wright . “ We put an immense amount of effort and resources to build an operation in a manner that is as low impact as possible .”
Eldorado consulted extensively with local communities on mine design and process flowsheet .
“ We made various investment decisions that you normally wouldn ’ t see with a mine this size . It was designed to reduce visual and environmental impacts , including moving crushers underground . It ’ s nicely tucked away in the hillsides .”
68 October 2014