The Buzwagi gold mine located 6km south-east of the district of Kahama within the Shinyanga area, United Republic of Tanzania, was the second largest working mine within the nation at its peak.
The mine was 100% owned and operated by African Barrick Gold (ABG), a subsidiary of Barrick Gold.
ABG bought the Buzwagi mine in 2000 and the feasibility research of the mine had been accomplished in 2006. The event of the mine started in 2007 and mining operations commenced in Could 2009.
The operational lifetime of the mine got here to an finish in July 2021 and the mine was formally closed in July 2022.
A brand new airport terminal was constructed at Buzwagi mine’s Kahama airstrip by a partnership between Barrick Gold and the Tanzania Airport Authority (TAA). The terminal was accomplished at a complete value of roughly $384,000 and was handed over to TAA in January 2024.
The brand new terminal can accommodate greater than 200 passengers at a time. It contains a VIP lounge and assembly room, espresso and present store, in addition to facilities for individuals with disabilities.
Porphyritic granite geology at Buzwagi mine
The Buzwagi gold mine lies in a fleece-hosted quartz-veined deposit which contains porphyritic granite.
Reserves at Buzwagi
The confirmed and possible reserves on the mine as of December 2011 stood at 61.4 million tonnes grading 1.47g/t Au (2.9 million ounces of gold equal) alongside 0.11% Cu (154 million kilos of copper equal).
Mining technique
Buzwagi was developed as an open pit mine with the assistance of the truck and shovel technique. Extraction of the ore included drilling, blasting, loading and hauling.
The mining fleet comprised three excavators, Komatsu shovels, dozers, front-end loaders, 15 haul vehicles and three blast gap drill rigs.
The ore extracted was transported to the processing facility by 150t capability haul vehicles.
Ore processing
The processing plant had a capability of 12,000tpd of ore. It featured two Knelson KC-XD48 concentrators, CS2000 ACACIA reactors, a major jaw crusher, a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill and a flotation and carbon-in-leach circuit (CIL).
The run-of-mine (ROM) ore was damaged all the way down to a excessive diploma of fineness in a major jaw crusher. The crushed ore was transferred to the SAG mill for grinding. The bottom ore was conveyed to the Knelson KC-XD-48 concentrators and CS2000 ACACIA reactors to supply oxide ore.
The oxide ore was handled by the gravity, flotation and CIL circuit. It was transferred to the cyanide leach tanks containing leach resolution to generate a pregnant resolution. The answer was moved to the adsorption tanks the place the gold attaches to the floor of the carbon. The gold was separated from carbon in a gravity and floatation circuit. The answer was transferred to the tailing storage facility for reuse.
The gold precipitates had been transferred to the smelter to supply pure gold doré bars by washing the precipitates with high-pressure sprays adopted by drying and melting.
Web site infrastructure
The Buzwagi mine was accessible by an adjoining paved freeway, a 1,580m airstrip and the Isaka railway hub, which connects to the Port of Dar es Salaam on the Indian Ocean.
Contractors concerned in African Barrick Gold’s mining venture
Knelson Gravity Options was contracted by AGB to produce Knelson concentrators and ACACIA reactors for the Buzwagi processing plant.
Vacon provided variable velocity AC drives totalling 8MW, starting from the small three-amp Vacon NXS items as much as the most important 1,500A Vacon NXC items to render velocity management. The corporate additionally offered two 1,500-KVA 12-pulse transformers and ten tender starters.
The electrical energy used within the Buzwagi mine was provided by the nationwide grid of the Tanzania Electrical Provide Firm (Tanesco).
Pan African and Komatsu Company provided 46 machines and 6 generator units to ABG for deployment on the mine.