Economical Aspects of Gold Projects

 

The economical aspects of gold projects are related to the factors that have influence during the prefeasibility study, feasibility study, investment and life of mine. The results obtained in the prefeasibility and feasibility study have a direct impact on the level of investment required to develop the project. For this reason the investment must consider the economical aspects of each stage of the process, its impact during the evaluation of the projects and the pros and cons to develop the project.

During the operation or life of mine, the economical evaluation of the gold operation may be analyzed by a simple relationship, Income = Ore value – Operation Cost. Basically, the ore value is a variable influenced by the gold grade, efficiency of the gold recovery process, gold price and commercial conditions of the international market. Obviously, some variables have more influence than others and the project manager must be able to handle the different scenarios, otherwise the project will have many weak points.

Regarding operation costs, they comprises of the aspects related to gold ore extraction, ore processing, precious metals refining and by products commercialization. For this reason the metallurgical testing program must provide optimum conditions in order to have low operating costs. The commercialization is highly influenced by the efficiency of the metallurgical process. Next figure shows the basic stages of a gold project.