Adamus Resources transitioned from junior project developer to gold-producing mining company in mid-January 2011 when it poured the first gold bar at its open-pit Nzema project in southwest Ghana, 280 km west of Accra. Based in West Perth, Western Australia, Adamus has developed the Nzema project to produce 100,000 oz/y of gold over a 10-year mine life.
Adamus has rights to approximately 665 km² of concessions on Ghana’s Ashanti Trend. The company’s near-term objectives include expansion of its reserves and resources to allow extension of the project’s mine life beyond 10 years. Significant free milling oxide targets in close proximity to the Nzema processing facility are currently being investigated, and recent exploration drilling intercepts beneath existing open-pits have revealed significant sulphide mineralization that has revealed excellent potential to replace ore reserves as mining progresses.
Nzema development was based on a June 2007 feasibility study completed by Adamus, with input from consulting companies that included Lycopodium Engineering, Knight Piésold and SGS. Mining will be done by a contractor from a series of open-pits, using conventional open-pit mining methods. The contractor will also provide earthmoving equipment and civil services for general site-maintenance works.
Mill throughput is planned at 1.6 million to 2.1 million mt/y, depending on ore type. The plant is a convention carbon-in-leach (CIL) facility. The flowsheet includes single-stage crushing and milling, gravity recovery of free gold from a portion of the cyclone feed, pre-leach thickening, single-stage leaching, and a 6-stage CIL circuit.
