CGA Mining (TSX: CGA, ASX: CGX) has secured a new mining contract with Leighton Contractors Asia Limited, a part of the Leighton Group, to expand the Masbate Gold Project in the Philippines to 6.5 Mtpa.
The plant at Masbate is currently running at an annualised rate of 6Mtpa. CGA is completing a US$15M investment program designed to upsize throughput.
Leighton Group, which is the largest mining contractor in the world with annual revenues exceeding US$16.5 billion, has ordered a larger mining fleet as part of the expansion.
The new fleet, initially consisting of 2 200T excavators and 10 100T dump trucks, will be used to increase mining production rates from the current 550,000 BCMs per month to 920,000 BCMs per month.
The fleet will be further increased with the addition of an extra 7 100T dump trucks, to be ordered in approximately 6 months time. The new fleet will improve the efficiency of the mining operation and will allow the acceleration of cutbacks to ensure ore is available to the mill at the increased rates.
Michael Carrick, chief executive officer, said “this is an important step towards locking in the benefits from the economies of scale available at an expanded throughput rate of 6.5 Mtpa."
"The sizing of the fleet is in line with the larger mining areas now available and is a reflection of the maturity and future potential of the operation at Masbate."
The Masbate Gold Project is the largest gold project in the Philippines and was successfully developed with first gold poured on 12 May 2009.
The project has a total indicated resource base of 4.55M ounces, total inferred resource base of 3.22M ounces and a probable reserve of 3.03M ounces of gold. At steady state operations the project is forecast to produce over 200,000 ounces per annum.