π Tender Overview
Location Sulawesi island
Scope :
The Pani Gold project in Indonesia is planned to be developed as an open-pit mining operation.
The Pani Gold project, situated in the Gorontalo province of Indonesia, is undergoing development to become an open-pit mine.
It is poised to emerge as one of Indonesiaβs largest primary gold mines.
Merdeka Copper Gold, an Indonesian company specialising in metal and mineral mining, will develop and operate the mine.
The Pani Gold project will start with an initial investment of $250m for a heap leach (HL) processing facility with a capacity of seven million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
The life of mine is expected to extend over a period of 16 years from 2025 to 2041.
Merdeka plans to invest a further $633m to construct a carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing facility with a capacity of 7.5mtpa.
The CIL facility is expected to commence construction in 2027 followed by commissioning in late 2028
A subsequent expansion of the CIL circuit is planned for commissioning in 2031 enhancing production capacity to 12mtpa, which will necessitate an additional investment of approximately $294m.
The project is estimated to have a peak annual gold production of 500,000oz from the HL and CIL processes.
The first gold production using the HL process is anticipated in 2025, followed by the CIL process in 2028.
Project location
The Pani Gold project is located in the central part of the north arm of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It lies within the Hulawa township of Buntulia district, Pohowatu regency, in the Gorontalo Province.
Geology and mineralisation
The Pani Gold project is situated within North Sulawesiβs Tertiary magmatic arc.
This arc comprises pre-tertiary basement metamorphics and granitic intrusions, which are unconformably overlaid by late Tertiary volcanic formations and associated sedimentary rocks.
These formations include Oligo-Miocene submarine volcanics and sediments, as well as late Miocene-Pliocene subaerial volcanics.
The Pani Gold projectβs licence areas cover the Plio-Pleistocene rhyodacitic Pani Volcanic Complex, situated within a large, circular structure interpreted as a caldera with a diameter of 25km.
Resources
The projectβs resources are estimated to include indicated and inferred resources of 281.3 million tonnes (t), grading 0.74g/t gold and 0.82g/t silver.
The total contained gold and silver is estimated at 6.7 million ounces (moz) and 7.5moz, respectively.
Mining method
The Pani Gold project will be developed using conventional open-pit mining techniques, taking advantage of the topography and the shallow nature of the mineral deposit.
Mining operations will be undertaken with a strip ratio of 0.49 for the heap leach and 0.56 for the combined heap leach and CIL operation.
The mine will follow an owner-operated approach with a fleet featuring a mix of conventional hydraulic excavators/shovels and dump trucks.
Ore processing at heap leach plant
The
