Management of Twin Gold (twg-t) intends to place the Atlanta gold project near Boise, Idaho, into production by the year 2000 at a capital cost of US$50 million.
The Toronto-based junior, which is headed by mining engineer Hermann Derbuch, has signed an agreement to acquire an 80% interest in the former producer from Quest International Resources (qix-t).
To earn the interest, Twin Gold must reimburse Quest for the US$3.8 million spent on the property since late 1993.
Quest intends to focus its resources on the Damoti Lake gold project in Canada’s Northwest Territories. The company will retain a 20% interest in the Altanta project, however, and says it will benefit as the property is “aggressively moved toward production by the Twin Gold management team.” Twin Gold plans to spend US$6.5 million to develop the property. Derbuch says the immediate goal is to upgrade reserves and resources, obtain final permitting approval and conduct a feasibility study.
Based on previous prefeasibility studies, the project has reserves and resources totalling 15.5 million tons grading 0.07 oz. gold per ton. These are minable by open-pit methods.
Underground reserves and resources (diluted) provide an additional 784,174 tons grading 0.31 oz. gold. Twin Gold believes the underground resource has not been fully explored and has potential for additional resources along strike and at depth.
These reserves and resources are divided into three categories; oxide, transition and sulphides. About half the gold is cyanide-soluble; the remainder is locked in arsenopyrite and require some form of oxidation for liberation.
Metallurgical testing has examined several processing options. Both pressure oxidation and bacterial oxidation yield gold extraction from the concentrate of 96% to 98%, but Twin Gold notes that the bacterial system offers lower capital and operating costs and remains the preferred option. Another possible option is heap bacterial oxidation.
Twin Gold is examining other projects in Idaho which have near-term production potential.
The junior also is active in Kalimantan, Indonesia, where it holds rights to seven properties.
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