Lumina Gold Corp (TSX-V:LUM, OTCQX:LMGDF) said it has hired global engineering group Ausenco to lead the pre-feasibility study for its Cangrejos gold-copper project in Ecuador, expected to be completed in early 2023.
Ausenco was responsible for the waste rock, tailings management and site infrastructure portions of the 2020 PEA and is already familiar with the Cangrejos project, the company noted.
Drilling is currently continuing at Cangrejos in El Oro Province, with four rigs on site, and to date, around 4,700 metres (m) have been drilled across nine completed holes and three in progress, it added.
READ: Lumina Gold adds drill rigs to target mineral resource estimate conversion and expansion at its Cangrejos project in Ecuador
As part of the study, the two companies have agreed to complete trade-off and optimization studies on the following:
- Process plant layout and siting with the aim of reducing the plant footprint
- Overall review of metallurgical test work with the aim to simplify the process flowsheet
- Gravity gold recovery circuit cost/benefit analysis and gravity gold treatment method
- Gold-copper extraction/recovery circuit optimization, including saprolite and sap-rock processing
- Molybdenum concentrate circuit cost/benefit analysis
- HPGR processing cost/benefit analysis vs SAG/ball mill circuit
- Process plant throughput optimization based on current information with the aim to identify CAPEX and OPEX reductions versus 2020 preliminary economic assessment (PEA)
- Review of the 2020 PEA filter plant and dry stack tailings design and identify optimization opportunities, including evaluating potential conventional slurry tailings and dry stack sites
The Cangrejos project spans over 6,000 hectares (Ha) and is 30 kilometres (km) south-east of the provincial capital of Machala and the Pan American Highway and 40 km from the deep water commercial port of Puerto Bolivar.
It hosts an indicated resource of 571 million tonnes of 0.73 grams per ton (g/t) gold-equivalent, with 10.4 million ounces (Moz) gold and 1.4 billion pounds of copper. Inferred is 500 million tonnes of 0.52 g/t gold-equivalent, with 6.3 Moz gold and 0.8 billion pounds of copper.
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com