📋 Tender Overview
Scope :
The Kharmagtai copper-gold project located in Omnogovi Province of Mongolia will be developed as an open pit mine.
The Kharmagtai high-grade open-pit copper-gold project is under development in the Omnogovi province of Mongolia.
The project is owned by Zijin, a global mining company, and Xanadu Mines, a Mongolia-based exploration company.
The scoping study of the project was completed in April 2022. The pre-feasibility study commenced in 2023 and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2024.
The final investment decision on the project is expected to be taken in 2024. Onsite construction at the project is expected to commence in 2026.
The Kharmagtai copper-gold project is expected to achieve first production by the end of 2027. It is estimated to have an average annual production of 50,000 tonnes (t) of copper and 110,000 ounces (oz) of gold over a life of mine (LOM) of 30 years.
Kharmagtai copper-gold project location
The Kharmagtai copper-gold property is located 420km south-southwest of Ulaanbaatar town and 60km from the regional centre of Tsog Tsetsii.
The property lies approximately 120km north of Rio Tinto’s Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine.
The project is a part of the South Gobi porphyry copper province, which hosts major porphyry deposits, including Oyu Tolgoi, Tsagaan Suvarga and the Oyut Ulaan porphyry copper-gold exploration project.
Geology and mineralisation
Kharmagtai comprises multiple co-genetic, gold-rich porphyry copper centres and tourmaline breccia pipes situated within the Carboniferous Kharmagtai Igneous Complex. The complex is characterised by a series of intrusive bodies with compositions ranging from diorite to monzodiorite, quartz-monzodiorite, monzonite and granodiorite.
Mineralisation at Kharmagtai occurs in three distinct styles: porphyry-style stockwork Cu-Au mineralisation, tourmaline breccia-style Cu-Au mineralisation and epithermal gold associated with carbonate base metal veins.
Kharmagtai copper-gold project reserves
The Kharmagtai copper-gold project is estimated to hold 47.5 million tonnes (Mt) of indicated resources, grading 0.23% copper and 0.22g/t gold, as of March 2023. The contained metal is estimated at 110,000t of copper and 332,000oz of gold.
Inferred resources are estimated to be 4.5Mt, grading 0.19% copper and 0.19g/t gold and containing 9,000t of copper and 28,000oz of gold.
Mining at Kharmagtai copper-gold project
The Kharmagtai copper-gold project will be developed using a conventional open pit mining method following a standard drill, blast, load and haul cycle.
The open pit mine is projected to have a favourable strip ratio of 0.9:1 for the initial five years, followed by a slightly higher ratio of 1.1:1 over the life of the mine of 30 years.
The mine’s development will occur in two stages. The first stage will have a capacity of 15 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), which will be expanded to 30Mtpa in Stage Two.
The mining site
