Çöpler Operations
- Ownership:
- 80% Alacer Gold, 20% Lidya Mining
- Location:
- 120 km southwest of Erzincan, Turkey
- Mining:
- Open pit
- Processing:
- Heap Leach
- 2012 Gold Production:
- 188,756 ounces
- Proven & Probable Reserves:
- 74.4Mt at 1.4g/t gold for 3.5 million ounces
- Measured & Indicated Resources:
-
146.2Mt at 1.4g/t gold for 6.6 million ounces
(as at December 2012, 80% basis)
Çöpler Gold Mine is operated by Alacer Gold and is 80% owned by Alacer Gold with the remaining 20% held by our Turkish partners Lidya Madencilik San. Ve Tic, A.Ş. Alacer acquired its first interest in Çöpler in September 1998 and consolidated 100% control of the property in January 2004 before entering the strategic relationship with Lidya Mining in August 2009.
Construction of the mine began in late 2009 with the first gold poured in December 2010 and commercial production declared in April 2011.
Çöpler is located in the eastern part of Turkey, roughly 550 km east of Ankara and 120 km southwest of the city of Erzincan. The nearest population centre is the town of ĺliҫ (population 2,500) which is 6km northeast of Çöpler. Alacer maintains constructive partnerships with the local communities and regional stakeholders surrounding Çöpler to ensure that activities which may impact them are carried out in a consultative and participatory manner.
Çöpler is an epithermal gold deposit, centred on a composite diorite to monzonite porphyry stock that has intruded into the surrounding metasediments and limestone-marbles. Crossing these units are two main parallel east-northeast striking faults with smaller northeast/northwest striking faults between them, providing a permissive environment for the hydrothermal mineralization.
Mineralization at Çöpler occurs in both oxide and sulfide forms, amenable to conventional open pit mining. Processing of the oxide ores occurs in a conventional crush, agglomeration, heap-leach and gold recovery circuit. The treatment of sulfide ore has not yet commenced and the optimal processing route is being evaluated. More information on the Çöpler Sulfide Project can be found here.
As of December 31, 2012, Alacer's attributable Proven and Probable Reserves totalled 74.4 Mt at an average grade of 1.4g/t gold for a total of 3.5 million contained ounces. Several NI43-101 Technical Reports on Çöpler Gold Mine are available at www.sedar.com and the Technical Reports section of this website.
The Çöpler Gold Mine produced 188,756 ounces during 2012 at a Total Cash Cost of $375 per ounce.
