Continental Gold Announces Progress on Buriticá Mine Construction, 1st Gold Pour On Track For Early 2020

Today, Continental Gold (TSX:CNL OTCQX:CGOOF) shared a progress update with Finance Colombia and other news outlets. The Toronto based miner building the Buriticá gold mine near the town of the same name in Antioquia, Colombia announced that satisfactory progress is being made in the construction of the mine infrastructure, and that commercial gold production is on track for next year.

As of March 22, 2019, construction of the Buriticá project has reached 56% completion; mill and surface infrastructure engineering and procurement is over 98% complete. Concrete work continues to advance rapidly, and mechanical installation and structural steel erection have begun in key areas, including crushing, grinding and tailing filtration. Significant progress has been achieved in the grinding area, where the SAG shell, end caps and discharge trunnion have been installed; the ball mill shell is 50% installed. The primary crusher and apron feeder, including drive components, have been installed. In the tailing filtration area, the filter feed tank is approximately 80% complete, and installation of the feeders for moving filtered tailing to the conveying system is over 70% complete. This work will be followed by structural steel and filter press installation, beginning in Q2 2019. Welding has been completed on all five leach tanks and significant advance has been achieved on the concrete for CCD #1, tailing thickener, clarifier and cyanide oxidation tanks. At the tailing storage facility, the contractor has started excavating, filling and placing geogrid material. The 110-kV powerline installation is 44% complete and remains on schedule for completion in Q3 2019.

• Construction of the overall Buriticá project is 56% complete and remains on schedule for completion and first gold pour in H1 2020. Ramp-up to commercial production is anticipated approximately six months thereafter.
• Major equipment including the SAG mill and primary crusher are in place and installation of ball mill shells are underway.
• Structural steel erection is advancing rapidly in many areas, particularly for the crushing, grinding and tailing filtration circuits.
• In early March, crews reached a significant milestone by surpassing 10 kilometers of underground development advance. As of March 22, 2019, approximately 74% of the pre-production development plan has been completed, totaling 10,529 meters of lateral underground development.
• Top sill development is complete or advancing for 14 stopes in the Yaraguá system and six stopes in the Veta Sur system; ground conditions within these areas continue to meet design expectations.
• The 110-kV powerline installation remains on schedule for completion in Q3 2019.
  

  Grinding area construction underway

  Pre-production underground development is approximately 11% ahead of schedule and is nearly 74% complete. At the current rate, the Company anticipates the required pre-production development will be completed in Q3 2019, which will allow crews to focus on Year 1 production development and provide access to additional stope areas. The first production long-hole drill machine for the project arrived at site in December 2018; crews have been training since mid-January 2019 and recently completed their first 10-metre drop raise for ventilation in the Higabra development area. Comprehensive definition drilling continues as an integral part of mine development. Monthly definition drilling is increasing as the mine is being prepared for H1 2020 production.

  “Progress at Buriticá continues to increase at a brisk pace,” commented Donald Gray, Chief Operating Officer. “Our cumulative lateral development has been exceeding planned targets. With the arrival of our two long-hole drilling machines, we have expanded our comprehensive local workforce training to include the skills required to successfully mine our high-grade gold resource. Our dedicated workforce continues to meet our expectations and demonstrate their commitment to work as a safe and productive team, which is key to meeting our 2020 production objectives. Surface construction is accelerating as expected and we anticipate hitting full stride in Q2 2019. We are targeting critical areas such as crushing, grinding, Merrill Crowe and tailing filtration, and we are seeing excellent results to date. Our project management team is working closely with our contractors to identify opportunities and effectively allocate resources on key activities. We are seeing the positive results of maintaining our disciplined construction approach as we look forward to completing construction and beginning production in 2020.”

Photos courtesy of Continental Gold