Project Summary: Tulawaka
Owner
MDN holds a 30% participating interest in the Tulawaka property in Tanzania, which started commercial production in March 2005 as the Tulawaka Gold Mine.
Location
The Tulawaka mine is located about 160 km southwest of the city of Mwanza, in the western part of the Lake Victoria goldfield, United Republic of Tanzania. The property is a mining concession surrounded by prospecting licenses in the Biharamulo District (Kagera region) and Kahama District (Shinyanga region).
Area
The joint enterprise agreement covers an area of 317 km².
The main Tulawaka gold deposit is hosted in dominantly volcanogenic tuffaceous rock and bedded terrigenous sediment with thin layers of silicate iron formations, all metamorphosed into amphibolite facies. A generation of porphyric felsic veins as well as a generation of mafic and felsic veins intersect the metamorphic rocks.
The deposit is considered to have developed in an isolated shear zone along which porphyry dykes were intruded. The shear zone and the porphyry bodies developed in tectonic dislocations during deformation.
The shear zone appears to be parallel or subparallel to the rock strata, containing all the quartz veins over a strike length of at least 1,300 m, dipping to the northeast. These quartz veins pinch and swell both along strike and down dip, and contain most of the gold mineralization. Significant gold mineralization was found beneath current operations at a vertical depth of more than 200 meters.
Resources and Mineral Reserves
From the opening of the Tulawaka mine in March 2005 to December 31, 2009, a total of 748,549 ounces of gold was produced. New reserves for 2010 have replaced the gold extracted in 2009.
| TulawakaMine | Dec 2008 | Dec 2009 | ||
| Category | Tons @ g/t Au | ounces | Tons @ g/t Au | ounces |
| Reserves | 488,266 @ 2,8 | 43,968 | 215,145 @ 2,97 | 20,551 |
| 179,015 @ 12,8 | 73,723 | 310,469 @ 11,3 | 113,173 | |
| Total | 117,691 | Total | 133,724 | |
| Resources | 220,319 @ 16,0 | 113,264 | 248,606 @ 5,8 | 46,241 |
During fiscal year 2009, the Tulawaka gold mine produced 94,180 ounces of gold compared to the anticipated 75,000 ounces. The total average cash costs for the fiscal year was US $407 to produce an ounce of gold. The average production grade was 7.0 g/t of gold and the average recovery rate was 93.9% at the mill. During the year, 93,355 ounces of gold were sold on the spot market at an average price of US $966 an ounce. Gross revenues for fiscal 2009 were US $90.2 million. Given the cash available at the mine at December 31, 2009, the operator was able to distribute a net total of US $6 million to MDN in relation to its 30% interest in the Tulawaka project. In 2009, the ramp and stope access drifts were developed to the seventh level, approximately 200 meters below ground. Mining took place primarily in the stopes on the three upper levels. As a result of underground exploration of the deposit in the 100 meters below the pit, all the Tulawaka mine reserves extracted in 2009 have been replaced.
In 2010, the mine should produce an estimated 76,000 ounces of gold.