Climate challenges
ASIA
Nordgold ’ s Bissa CIL plant at dawn anticipates this will happen in mid- 2018 – the Gross mine will make a significant impact on the business . “ We ’ re predicting about 25 % increase in overall gold production from our current level ” Wilcox observes . “ It will take us well past the
1mn ounce produced goal , which is a remarkable level in the industry .” Naturally , the Gross mine has resulted in substantial expenditure by Nordgold . “ The investment to date is about US $ 150mn but the final investment number including the mining equipment will be around US $ 250mn . Obviously ,
that depends on the exchange rate between currencies . We ’ re financing it almost entirely from the cashflow from our other mines , so we ’ re not going into debt to build this project ,” remarks Wilcox .
Climate challenges
Despite the advantages of the Gross mine , the site has also presented some challenges for Nordgold . “ We ’ ve had to be fairly innovative to build and operate this plant in the weather conditions that we ’ re experiencing in the Yakutia region ,” Wilcox explains . “ We get temperatures down to -50 Celsius , so recovering gold , leaching and producing power are all challenging things in that kind of climate .”
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