SAINDAK COPPER GOLD PROJECT
The Saindak copper-gold deposits, located at a distance of 35 km from Pakistani border town Taftan and 325 km from the city of Dalbandin, was discovered by Geological Survey of Pakistan in 1961. The area was further studied from 1972 to 1973 and the mineralized zones were defined as East, North and South ore bodies. From 1974 to 1977, Resource Development Corporation (RDC), later on called Saindak Metals Limited (SML), carried out the exploratory work through drilling of 135 bore-holes in the targeted areas.A brief of South, North and East ore bodies is as follows
During the geological evaluation period, SML drilled 40 exploratory holes in the East Ore-Body. Between 2007 and 2008, Sinomines Resource Exploration Co. Ltd., China drilled 16 exploratory holes (10,595 m. In January 2019, MRDL submitted Design Scheme of Supplementary Geological Exploration for Saindak East Ore-Body and drilled 46 holes (10,875 meters) including 7 for geotechnical studies upto May 2019. Final feasibility study was submitted in Decamber 2020. The main features i.e Geological resources with 0.36% Cu @ 0.25%Cu cutoff grade: 336 million ton. Mineable ore reserves@ 0.374%Cu. 85.60 Million ton. Waste rock: 68.87 million ton. Ore production : 12500 t/d, 4.25 million t/y. ROM Cu feed grade : 0.364%Cu.
On 23rd September 1990, a contract was signed between MCC, China and RDC Pakistan for development of SOB of Saindak copper-gold deposits and MCC submitted a basic design for the same As per basic design submitted by ENFI China, the salient features of SOB were as under:-
- * Geological reserves: 96.038 million tonnes @ 0.413% Cu, 0.441 g/t Au.
- * Ore reserves within pit outline: 78.522 million tonnes @ 0.434% Cu, 0.476 g/t Au.
- * Ore production: 4.25 million tonnes per year, 12,500 tonnes per day,
- * Total mining and stripping quantity: 17 million tonnes per year.
- * Annual output of Cu concentrate (with 22% Cu): 71,180 tonnes,
- * Output of magnetite concentrate (with 60% Fe): 62,333 tonnes.
- * Output of pyrite concentrate (with 40% S): 79,688 tonnes.
- * Annual output of Blister Copper (with 98.5% Cu): 15,500 tonne with 39,981 oz Au; and 35,622 oz Ag.
On 30th November 2001, an agreement was signed in Beijing, China between Saindak Metals Limited (SML) and the China Metallurgical Construction (Group) Corporation (MCC) for exploring, mining and processing of Copper ore and other minerals for a period of ten years (up to October 2012). The production started in June 2003 after repair and maintenance of mining and plant machinery. In 2011, the agreement was extended for five years i.e. till October 2017 and then further extended for five more
years up to October 2022 through Addendums No.2 & 3, respectively, to the Lease Contract.
In December 2014, Kunming Prospecting Design Institute of China Nonferrous Metals Industry submitted the detailed geological survey report of North Ore-Body to MRDL/MCC and ENFI China. They drilled 64 exploratory holes (18,000 m). In December 2015, MRDL submitted the feasibility study report for open pit mining of North Ore-Body. The estimated total ore resources were 46.429 million ton, the average grade of copper as 0.37%, quantity of associated gold was worked out to 6,346 kg with the average grade of gold as 0.14 g/t. After geological modeling and pit designing, the indicated and inferred ore quantity became 10.308 million ton with average copper grade of 0.38% and gold at 0.22 gram/ton.