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Cyanides to be used for only 10pct of gold ore mined at Certej
Gold at Certej, the western Romanian county of Hunedoara, will be mined using a technology that utilises cyanides in a closed circuit only and only for the gold concentrate, which is just 10 percent of the gold ore subjected to processing under the project, Director General Nicolae Stanca of Deva Gold, the company carrying out the investment in the mining project, said Tuesday.
'No cyanides will be used under the Certaj mining project from the flotation stage to the gold concentrate. Out of the total of 3 million tonnes of ore to be processed each year, 315,000 tonnes of gold concentrate are obtained that will be processed in a closed circuit using a modern technology,' Stanca explained.
He added that the mud coming from the processing of the gold concentrate will have a cyanide concentration three times lower than that provided for under the European Union and the Romanian Waters regulations.
'Everybody is scared that cyanides will be used. I would like to tell you that no cyanides will be used in the flotation stage, that is the processing stage. The concentrate that results from flotation will be processed with cyanides in a closed circuit, using a modern technology. When evacuated, the mud will have a 3 ppm/ml cyanide concentration, compared with the 10 ppm/ml concentration, as mandated by the European Union. By simple reckoning, we can see that this is three times lower than what the EU regulations allow or what other projects in more developed European countries get,' Stanca added.
He also explained that the Certej gold mining project started in 1998, with prospecting works, after which the procedures to win the environmental certificates followed in 2006, with all the necessary steps having been taken. Public debates were also held that included trans-frontier debates in Budapest, Szeged and Serbia.
If things go normal at the next level of building permits and other authorisations, the investor, Eldorado Gold Corporation Canada, could start construction works under this project in 2013. Gold ore exploitation will be performed in an open-pit mine for 16 years, after which the closure works will be conducted that could take four more years to complete.
'If things go normal at the next level of authorisation, we would like to start off the project as soon as possible, perhaps 2013 if the building permit and other authorisations are issued - so that the project may enter the exploitation phase in two years' time. At the construction stage, the project will create 800 jobs, while 500-550 jobs will be created for the 16 years of the project's life. All this will happen in an area where unemployment exceeds 35 percent,' Stanca said.
The Certej gold mining investment is put at 200 million euros. The expected production is put at 32 million tonnes of gold ore that has an estimated average gold content of 2.1 g/tonne.