TROY RESOURCES. GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES. Founded in 1984, it only...

TROY RESOURCES. GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES.

Founded in 1984, it only took Troy Resources three years to be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and it has regularly bested itself over the last 31 years since then. Proving that success comes with focus, determination and courage, they have written the book on resource mining across Guyana.

Elevated view of Gold Mining processing plant
With an initial focus on a group of tenements in Southern Cross, western Australia, its first success was the development of the Cornishman Stage 1 in Southern Cross, which was a joint venture with Mawson Pacific. The result of this project was to move Troy Resources from the ranks of explorer, up to producer.
This was followed by the development of the 100% Pilot project just north of Southern Cross, then by Cornishman Stage 2, generating sufficient funds for acquisition and development of the Bulchina Project in Sandstone.
Ken Nilson, Executive Director at Troy Resources in Guyana, was on hand to speak about the company and their new development that has recently been approved.
A keystone in the development and strength of Troy Resources, partnering with other businesses has helped to achieve greater goals.
The early 2000s were a very busy time for Troy Resources; in 2002 they commenced production at the Bulchina mine at their Sandstone Gold Project in western Australia and they also purchased the Goiás Velho Project in Brazil, where they concentrated their efforts on bringing this project into production, a task that was achieved in March 2003.
The following year the sandstone deposit at the Bulchina mine ceased and the milling operation continued to process low-grade ore until early the following year, before it too closed shop. 2004 also saw the discovery of the Lord Henry Deposit and the Lord Nelson Deposit in the Sandstone Greenstone Belt (the “SSGB”), approximately 30 kilometres southeast of the Bulchina Mine. Mining commenced at Lord Nelson in early 2005 and at Lord Henry in early 2006, while in July 2007 mining at the Sertão mine was completed and the processing of ore at the Sertão mill was ceased in August 2007.
In November 2006, Troy acquired the Andorinhas Gold Project in north Brazil from Agincourt Resources Limited, for US$10.14 million in cash, by purchasing all of the shares of Agincourt Resources do Brasil Ltda, which holds the Andorinhas Gold Project.
“To enable production to commence in May 2008, Troy relocated the processing facility from Sertão to Andorinhas,” Ken explains, “Just 18 months after, the resource was then acquired with an initial capital cost of under US$20 million.”
In May 2009 Troy acquired the Casposo gold and silver project in San Juan Province, Argentina and commenced development of the project in October of the same year, utilising a processing plant Troy had held in storage. First gold was poured in November 2010 and the official opening of the mine was held in late May 2011.
In the second half of 2013, Troy completed the acquisition of ASX-listed, Azimuth Resources Limited, whose main asset was the Karouni project, formerly West Omai located in Guyana. The company fast tracked development of Karouni with construction throughout 2014 and earliest production intended for mid- 2015.
Ken is responsive when it comes to the attitude behind Troy Resource’s approach to work in general, “Troy continues to look for new opportunities and this has led us to developments in exploration within Brazil and Argentina and most recently with the acquisition of the Karouni project, Guyana.”
REPUTATION
Troy has built a solid reputation for employing a highly capable team of senior managers, staff and consultants with an outstanding array of international and Australian experience and success.
According to Ken, the company, that employs some 300 workers, is all about building people. It’s a case of training the staff to the best possible level, providing them with the best tools and directing them towards a shared goal. Never about micro-management, Troy Resources has the reputation for being an employer of choice for a reason,“Our staff and consultants offer an outstanding array of international and Australian experience and success.”
In addition to their reputation as an employer, their reputation for fast track mine development, sweetened with low cost operations and strategic acquisitions, has given them a strategic position for growth, leaving them with an excellent track record for mine delivery, robust balance sheets and the people to reposition the company as a successful mid-tier producer with a portfolio of quality long-life assets.
KAROUNI PROJECT
Analysis of the Karouni project through PEA result revealed that the mine consists of a combination of two open cut and one underground mine, feeding a conventional carbon-in-leach gold plant with a nominal capacity of 750,000tpa. The PEA assumes a total of 5.2 million tonnes of material will be processed with an average grade of 4.13g/t with recovered gold production of 633,000 ounces over a 7-year mine life.
“What this means is that the Karouni project has enough material to be mined for seven years with a yearly production of 90,000 ounces of gold and an initial production of 102,000 ounces gold in the first year,” Ken explains.
Ken says that initially the capital required for this project, including the pre-production mining costs, stood at $86.8 million and the expected capital required to sustain the project over the seven years of the mines life was expected to be $8.6 million. Underground development itself costs $21.6 million and the underground mining fleet $10.3 million, while the cost of constructing and commissioning the project, including the open pit mine was $77.5 million, including a contingency of US$7.0 million. A further US$9.3 million was required for pre-production mining, including waste pre-strip and building a high-grade stockpile ahead of treatment through the processing plant.
MINING
According to Ken, the Project will be developed, initially, as an open cut operation at Smarts and Hicks followed by underground mining at Smarts.
“Mining will commence six months before the processing plant is scheduled to be commissioned,” Ken says, “This will enable adequate high grade stocks to be accumulated prior to the commencement of processing and an initial fleet comprising of two excavators will commence at Smarts and Hicks. There is sand overburden up to 30m thick covering much of Smarts, whereas the Hicks deposit outcrops.”
He adds that initial production will be sourced from Hicks while Smarts overburden is removed, whereupon production will then focus on the higher-grade Smarts deposit. An additional fleet will be mobilised after nine months to provide additional capacity for Smarts.
“Unless additional material is discovered, or an increase in the gold price justifies a change in the mine plan, part of the mining fleet will then be demobilised in month 30 with a second fleet demobilised in month 42 and open pit mining concluded in month 63,” he says.
Smarts Deposit
Smarts will be mined as a five-stage pit. The first three stages will target shallow, higher-grade pods, with the final two stages amalgamating the pits into a single final pit. Mining will be via conventional backhoe configured excavators loading 30t rigid trucks. Mining will be done on 2.5m flitches over a 5m high blast. Initial sand overburden removal will be free dig, with no blasting required.
Hicks Deposit
Hicks will be developed as a series of four discrete pits along the Hicks line of mineralisation (see Figure below). Open pit mining will target higher grade, shallow mineralisation. The deepest pit, Stage 2, extends to 90m below natural surface. There is no overburden masking mineralisation at Hicks. Mining parameters will be the same as those used for designing the Smarts Pits.
Underground Mining Operations
An underground mine will be developed beneath the Smarts pit. The underground development will begin at the completion of the Stage four Smarts pit. Access will be via a 5.5m x 5.5m decline, developed at a gradient of one in seven. Levels to access mineralisation will be developed at 20m vertical intervals. Development along mineralisation will be a nominal 4.5m x 4.5m. Up-hole benching is proposed as the primary mining method, with some areas using cut and fill and open stoping, depending on ground conditions and stope dimensions. The mineralisation is sub-vertical with widths of between 3-10m and is amenable to this style of mining. Stopes will be backfilled with development waste and pillars left for support where required (see Figures below).
AFTER MINING
Following the actual mining of the material, what follows is mineral processing and metallurigical testing; of course the end product does not just come out of the ground like that. Limited historical metallurgical test work for the Hicks deposit was conducted throughout the 90s by Cathedral Gold and Cambior, however, there is insufficient information to confirm that the metallurgical test work is representative of the entire deposit. The majority of gold mineralisation is located in fresh rock at Hicks, but only a small number of metallurgical samples for fresh rock were tested, Ken tells us.
Smarts Deposit
The Smarts deposit metallurgical test-work comprised 11 composites and was tested at ACME Metallurgical Laboratories in Vancouver, in October 2011. The metallurgical program targeted the definition of Leaching and Gravity performance as separate processes. The composites were chosen to represent a range of grades from both oxidised and fresh material. In addition, two composites, each of oxide and fresh material, representing a spread of grades from spatially diverse locations within the deposit were also tested and the results and conclusions of the cyanide test work were integrated into future metallurgical test work programs.
In the gravity amenability program, on average, 35% of gold was recovered to concentrate with five of the 11 tests yielding recoveries greater than 45%. The majority of the gravity tests exhibited these levels of recovery at the low mass recovery rates of 0.1 – 0.2% of feed mass.
THEN THE FLOWSHEET AND PROCESS PLANT
The proposed method of gold recovery is via a conventional Carbon in Leach (CIL) gold processing facility.
“This involves crushing, grinding, leaching and electrowinning,” Ken says, “With the final product being gold doré bars.”
Troy is expecting plant throughput to be 750,000 tonnes per annum. The processing plant requires chemical, electrical energy and water to operate and the expected level of electrical energy use is ~4.5MW with electricity supplied from a company-owned and operated diesel powered generating facility of ~10MW capacity consisting of a number of smaller units delivering power to be distributed over a 13,800 volt net-work at 60Hz.
This will provide back up power and room for expansion capacity. The water usage will initially be high until the tailings return water has stabilised and expected use of process water is ~800,000m 3/year to cover wash down, camp, mine and other uses. “Guyana is a very high rain fall area and lack of water is not seen as an issue.”
“There are also a number of chemicals required for this process,” Ken adds, “Including lime, diesel fuel, acids, flocculants, caustic soda and a number of smaller quantities of other chemicals. None of these products required are available in Guyana so they will need to be imported.”
NEVER A CONCLUSION
Far from being the pinnacle of Troy Resource’s ability, the Karouni project represents a statement of what they are capable of and has had the added benefit of creating work, offering experience and galvanising attitudes within the company’s staff and local suppliers.
“Projects like this are golden opportunities,” Ken concludes.

LINK:
http://www.littlegatepublishing.com/2015/05/troy-resources-golden-opportunities/