(TibetanReview.net, Jun01’24) — After being closed for over a year due to the overflow of its tailing dam, China Gold International Resources has announced the resumption of the Phase II processing plant at its Jiama mine near Tibet’s capital Lhasa.
A tailing dam is a pool built to store unwanted byproducts after the desired products are extracted and could be toxic, especially if its source is mining operation. This was probably the reason why the mining operation at the Jiama (Tibetan: Gyama) site was suspended.
The copper-gold mine was suspended on Mar 27, 2023, due to a tailings overflow at the Guolanggou dam, which the company has since repaired and reinforced, mining.com May 31 cited the company as saying in its announcement.
With approvals granted by Tibet government as well as relevant departments of the Chinese government, the Phase II processing plant is now operating with a daily processing capacity of 34,000 tonnes, the report said.
As a result, the Phase I plant, which has been running at a rate of 6,000 tonnes during the production ramp-up phase, will cease operations. This plant was allowed to resume in Dec 2023 following approval from the municipal government, the report noted.
Meanwhile, the company is actively advancing the construction of the Phase III tailings dam, which it expects to complete and put into operation during the first half of 2026.
The report cited the company’s year-end 2023 release as saying production targets of 95-98 million lb. of copper and 42,439-45,333 oz. of gold had been set for the Jiama mine this year once it returns to production.
This was stated to be in addition to the 106,097-112,528 oz. of gold forecasted at the company’s CSH mine in Inner Mongolia.
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The Jiama mine is one of the largest copper gold polymetallic mines in the People’s Republic of China, rich in copper, molybdenum, gold, silver, lead and zinc. It is located within the Gangdise Copper Metallogeny Belt in Central Tibet, approximately 60 km east of Tibet’s capital Lhasa.
The Company acquired the Jiama project on Dec 1, 2010 concurrent with the closing of its initial public offering and listing on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. Commercial production began at the Jiama project in Sep 2010.
Phase I development was completed at the Jiama project in 2010 and included two open pits, a processing plant and an underground ore transportation system.
Phase II expansion started commercial production on Jul 1, 2018. Jiama Mine’s Phase II consists of two series, Series I and Series II, each having a mineral processing capacity of 22,000 tonnes per day.