Tulkubash
The Company’s near-term focus in Kyrgyz Republic is on the development of its Tulkubash open pit heap leach project. Tulkubash forms the stage 1 development within Chaarat’s mining licence ultimately leading to the development of the stage 2 Kyzyltash deposit.
Annual drilling programme and feasibility studies carried out over many years have revealed a simple open pit deposit with standard heap leach processing to generate significant cash flows for a fast payback of the USD 115m capital investment and providing cash flows to progress the Kyzyltash deposit to a construction decision. The Tulkubash JORC-compliant Mineral Resource consists of three pit areas, the main, mid and east pit with further satellite pits and significant further anomalies identified within the wider licence area.
Construction / Development
The Company’s near-term focus in Kyrgyz Republic is on the development of its Tulkubash open pit heap leach Project. The Project has been well drilled and advanced to bankable feasibility study level over the past years and received USD 50 million of investment to date. Early construction has started in 2019 and to date approximately 10% of the project is constructed with another two construction seasons required to get to first gold production. Further extensive drilling programmes will be carried out over the next years to enhance the mine life of the Tulkubash project with Inferred Resource conversion and further exploration in the 70% undrilled areas of the licence. Discovery costs per ounce and ounces discovered per meter drilled are encouraging and continue to validate the belief that Tulkubash will continue to grow into a robust long term gold deposit and is the beginning of an emerging new gold district. The Company continues with the construction and exploration work with full scale construction commencing with the closing of the project financing. The Project is fully permitted for construction and operation and has been developed in accordance with highest international environmental and social standards.
Tulkubash
| Mine type | Oxide, Open Pit |
| Processing | Heap leach |
| Stage | In Construction |
| Resources | 1,011koz |
| Reserves | 647koz |
| Mine life | 6 years |
| Grade | 0.87 g/t |
| Recovery | 74.1% |
| Annual production | 95.2koz pa |
| Capital expenditure | ca. $115million |
| AISC | 866 USD/oz |
- Average gold production of 95,200 ounces per annum over an initial mine life of 5 years;
- All-in sustaining cost (AISC) of USD866 per ounce;
- Initial construction capital expenditures of USD 115 million required;
- Equity funding of USD 35 million secured;
- Project debt financing in finalisation;
| Au | Ag price (USD/oz) | 1,450 | 17.5 | 1,700 | 22.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Ave Project Cash Flow p.a. | 44 | 55 |
| LOM Project Cash Flow incl. CAPEX (USDm) | 134 | 199 |
| NPV5% (USDm) | 85 | 135 |
| Post-tax IRR | 25% | 35% |
Significant Potential for Mine Life Extension
2. BFS update expected in Q1 2021, numbers subject to change
Environmental and Social
- Project fully compliant with Kyrgyz legislation and international best practice, fully permitted for construction
- During operations ongoing monitoring work will be performed in accordance with national and international standards.
- Chaarat has developed an Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP) for the Project with a dedicated HSE Manager. HSE department will consist of safety engineers, environmental engineer and specialists, avalanche and rescue team and medical team.
- In Chaarat’s main office in the Chatkal Valley, Chaarat hosts stakeholder meetings and maintains a grievance register.
- Due to the distance of the nearest communities from the Mine site, any negative socio-economic impacts to the Mine are likely to be limited.
- It is anticipated that the positive impacts from employment and community investment on the local communities will be significant.
- Initially, there will not be any groundwater inflow. After full ramp up, water will be managed in accordance with the site wide water balance plan
- Noise impacts on local communities are predicted to be significantly below noise levels per international guidelines.
- Main air emissions are expected to be dust from haulage vehicles operating on unpaved roads and combustion emissions from site operations and haulage vehicles. The ESMS includes several mitigating measures that will be implemented by Chaarat.
Site Layout
approx. 10% of project construction completed to date, work on site
continuing despite COVID-19 - Electrical power - provided by a rented diesel generating station comprising generators, step-up transformers and 10kV switchgear
- Raw water will be supplied all year around from two pumping stations drawing water from two separate boreholes
- Other infrastructure comprising camp facilities, administrative buildings, a clinic and laboratories will also be constructed
First Gold Pour in Q3 2024
- The Project is fully permitted for construction and operation in country
- All aspects of the construction and the operation have been again tendered competitively through the COVID 19 period with further improvements
- Preordering of equipment has been done to the extent possible with remaining equipment orders ready to execute
- Execution strategy for successful monitoring and control via Integrated
Project Management Team (IPMT) approach
- Chaarat will manage the Project with the support of various engineering companies, including LogiProc, Azmet, YPT, Ausenco and Ken-Too
- The IPMT, led by Chaarat, will be responsible for the project management, procurement, and construction management using in-house resources
- A flat organisation structure will favour the rapid decision making required to “fast-track” project. The table outlines key milestone dates for the Project
Tulkubash – Mining
- The Tulkubash deposit will be developed and mined using conventional hard rock open pit mining techniques
- The open pit design is composed of three separate pits arranged along the strike of the orebody. The deposit is divided up into two zones, the Main Zone and the Mid Zone.
- The Main Zone Pit is the singled largest pit situated at the SW end of the mining area. The Main Zone Pit is approximately 1.3km in length and accounts for over 90% of the mineral reserves at Tulkubash
- The Mid Zone Pit is composed of two separate small open pits
- Pamir Mining a 100% owned subsidiary of Çiftay will be the mining contractor for Tulkubash and will undertake the drill and blasting, loading, haulage, grade control drilling, maintenance operations and technical services.
- As part of the mining contractor operation, Pamir Mining is estimated to employ a maximum of 524 persons which ranges on site from 133 to 524
Tulkubash Ore and Waste Movement 
Çiftay - An experienced and leading Turkish mining contractor
- Chaarat Gold has engaged Pamir Mining, a designated entity of Çiftay Inşaat (“Çiftay”) as its mining and construction earthworks contractors.
- Çiftay is a major construction and mining contractor in Turkey.
- Chaarat’s board member Robert Benbow has previous experience with Çiftay’s capabilities through the development of the Alacer Gold Project in Turkey.
- Çiftay’s construction contract includes the construction of site roads, facility platforms, and the heap leach pad.
- Çiftay’s mining operations contract includes mine development, pre-stripping, and production mining of ore and waste.
- In addition to the earthworks and mining contracts, Çiftay will perform a number of other activities on a contract basis including haulage and stacking of crushed ore on the heap, maintenance of on and off-site roads and management of the permanent camp.
Çiftay’s current mining and bulk materials contracts | Mine | Company | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Çöpler Gold Mine | SSR Mining | Turkey |
| Erdenmir Iron Mine | Erdenmir Madencilik SA | Turkey |
| Öksüt Gold Mine | Centerra Gold | Turkey |
| Kurumu Coal Mine | Türkiye Kömür İşletmeleri Kurumu | Turkey |
| Clay Handling Operations | Tracim Cimento | Turkey |
Tulkubash – Metallurgy & Processing
- Processing at Tulkubash consists of a conventional three-stage crushing circuit which will crush the run-of-mine (ROM) ore.
- Trucks then haul the crushed ore to the heap leach pad where it will be stacked in a permanent multi-lift heap leach.
- Lifts will be irrigated with a dilute cyanide solution to dissolve the gold and silver from the ore into the solution. Once the solution reaches the base of the heap, it will flow to the pregnant solution pond. From there it will be gravity fed to the ADR plant for gold and silver recovery.
- The precious metals from this pregnant solution will absorb onto granular activated carbon in the carbon columns of the ADR plant.
- The loaded carbon will be pressure stripped with a hot caustic solution to re-dissolve the previous metals into an eluate solution. The eluate will be treated using conventional electrowinning to produce gold-rich sludge suitable for direct smelting on site into gold Doré.
- Gold Doré bars are then transported off-site to a suitable refinery
