Kingsrose’s Way Linggo mine in Indonesia was the world’s highest-grade open pit gold mine in Q1 2020 (based on gold grade in milled ore).
The grade or concentration of a mineral or metal in ore directly affects costs associated with mining as well as its subsequent beneficiation and extraction of precious components.
Mines and Metals ranked currently active gold operations throughout the world based on gold grade in a tonne of milled ore. We looked at operations that are separate reporting units and which have Q1 2020 gold grade figures disclosed by the owners/operators.
For more accurate basis of comparison, gold operations have been split into underground and open-pit, since these mining methods utilize different techniques/equipment and it does make sense to identify “the best in the breed” gold operations within one mining category, first.
In its previous release, Mines and Metals reviewed highest-grade underground gold mines.
Here is the list of the world’s top ten open pit gold operations ranked by the gold grade in a tonne of milled ore.
With 7.3 g/t of gold in milled ore, Kingsrose’s Way Linggo mine in Indonesia was the world’s highest-grade open pit gold mine in Q1 2020.
The Way Linggo open pit was designed to mine the remaining Measured Resource above the 1 Level of the Way Linggo underground mine. The open pit recovers the pillars and remnant ore that Kingsrose was unable to mine with underground mining methods.
Endeavour Mining’s Natougou-Boungou mine in Burkina Faso sits second with 5.3 g/t of gold achieved during Q1 2020.
Calibre Mining’s El Limon mine in Nicaragua is third (5.1 g/t), followed by Polymetal’s Svetloye (4.4 g/t) and Highland Gold’s Valunisty mines in Russia (3.6 g/t).
The complete list is below.
Highest-grade open pit gold mines in the world. Source: Mines and Metals.
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