Agbaou Gold Mine

 mine, gold mine

This the area of the mine where the pits and waste dumps are located. The mining operations commenced in the third quarter of 2013 and the mining is conducted by contractor BCM International Ltd. (“BCM”). There are 10 planned pits and 4 planned waste dumps. Each desposit is mine using conventional open pit methods with selective mining to limit the strip ratio.

The practical pit design was prepared using the optimized pit shell as template. Surpac software was used to prepare the practical LOM designs, and to incorporate the haul roads and ramps together with the appropriate inter-ramp slope angles. In total, 10 pits were designed. The open pit design criteria were:

-Bench height, berm width and bench face angle were designed according to geotechnical recommendations of Golder Associates depending on lithology.

-Haul road width of 22m including safety berms providing sufficient room for two-way traffic for the 777D (90t) capacity haul trucks fleet that are currently used on site. This width was considered based on manufacturer recommendations. The recommendations indicate a minimum of 3.5m truck widths for two-way traffic and 3.0 to 4.0m passing width with 3.0m width for the safety windrow. The resulting road width is 22m with wider flat switchbacks. Minor ramps at the lower elevations of the pits have been reduced in width where traffic density will be lower.

-A haul road gradient of 10% has been used throughout. A minimum mining width of 30m has been assumed for all pits. This width suits the backhoe excavator loading method and the Caterpillar 777D turning circle of 28.4m.