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First gold was poured at the White Mountain Gold Mine in October 2008, only four years after the orebody was discovered by Sino Gold. Commercial gold production was achieved in January 2009 and production is planned to ramp-up over the course of 2009 to design rates.
Gold production averaging 65,000 ounces per annum is planned to result from mill throughput of approximately 650,000 tonnes per annum and overall gold recoveries averaging 80%.
White Mountain is located 230km south-southeast of Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province in northeast China.
In mid-2003, Sino Gold acquired an initial 80% interest in the White Mountain joint venture. In mid-2006, the Company increased its equity in the joint venture to 95%, which now holds Exploration Licences in the district totalling 128 square-kilometres.
A major northeast trending regional fault zone hosts the gold mineralisation at White Mountain, with mineralisation known to extend 1.5km along strike.
Gold mineralisation at White Mountain is primarily hosted by a silicified pyritic breccia in a fault zone between “hanging wall” quartzite and ‘footwall’ silicified dolomite. The dip angle of the mineralised fault zone averages 45 degrees to the southeast.
Pyrite and barite are associated with the gold mineralisation, but levels of arsenic, antimony and mercury are low.
Gold in silicified pyritic breccia
Exploration work at White Mountain has comprised geological mapping, ground geophysical (IP) survey, trenching, aditing and diamond drilling (302 holes to January 2008).
White Mountain’s Mineral Resources are estimated to total 12.4 million tonnes at 3.0g/t gold (containing 1.2 million ounces) and Ore Reserves are estimated to total 6.6 million tonnes at 3.7g/t gold (containing 0.8 million ounces) as at 31 December 2008.
The long section below summarises the distribution of gold mineralisation within the Mineral Resource.
A summary of all drillholes and assay results incorporated into White Mountain's Mineral Resource estimate is available for download by clicking here.
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