Production Rate Estimator

This Metal Production Estimator App allows the user to take a potential ore dimension, or a Resource or Reserve estimate and conceptualize possible production scenarios.  A user defines the mine life, which will determine the processing rate and the annual metal production. The App also estimates the insitu rock value and total contained metal in the Reserve.

Example

Say you have a gold deposit with an orebody 800 metres long, 30m wide and extending to a depth of 250m.  At a bulk density of 2.7 t/m3, that's about 16.2 Mt of ore.  From the early drill results we see grades in the range of 1.0 g/t Au and 20 g/t Ag.  Hence we can propose an estimated insitu Resource of 16.2 Mt with Au grade of 1.5 g/t and Ag grade of 20 g/t.  What might this deposit eventually produce?   Here's how to check.

Lets assume we can convert 70% of the insitu Resource into mineable Reserve.  By mining the better grade ore we can increase the head grade by +20%.   So the mineable Reserve would now be 11.3 Mt at 1.8 g/t and 24 g/t respectively.  At metal prices of $4000/oz Au and $50/ozAg, this would equate to an insitu rock value of about $192/tonne with 437k oz ounces of contained gold.

We might expect a process recovery of 90% on gold and 70% on silver.

If we target a 10 year mine life, we require a processing rate of 1.1 Mt/year (or about 3,100 tpd).  This results in a metal production of 39,300 oz gold per year and 612,500 oz of silver.     Is that good or bad - you decide.