The Haile Gold Mine is an open pit and underground gold-silver mine 100% owned and operated by OceanaGold. The mine is located in South Carolina in the USA.
OceanaGold owns the mine via its wholly owned subsidiary Haile Gold Mine (HGM).
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Being the largest gold mine on the East Coast, gold was discovered at Haile in 1827 and construction began in 1837 with the development of a five-stamp mill.
The mine has a rich history of production since 1861. Historically, the gold production at the mine is estimated at 3.6Moz (360,000 ounces) between 1993 and 1995.
The construction of the modern mine commenced in April 2015 under OceanaGold followed by the production of the first gold in January 2017. In October 2017, the mine commenced commercial operation.
Haile Gold Mine Location Details
The Haile Gold Mine is located in the northcentral region of South Carolina. The mine is 5,000m (5km) northeast of Kershaw in southern Lancaster County.
Lancaster lies 27,000m (27km) southeast and Columbia is situated 80,000m (80km) towards the northeast of the mine.
HGM holds 4442.639 hectares (10,978 acres) in South Carolina. Of this, 2213.226 hectares (5,469 acres) lie in the mine permit boundary.
The mine is accessible via paved roads and highways from the US Highway 601. The highway connects the mine entrance on the Snowy Owl Road lying 5,000m (5km) northeast of Kershaw.
From the international airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, the mine can be reached by an 80-minute drive.
Haile Gold Mine Ownership History
Colonel Benjamin Haile discovered gold in Ledbetter Creek, now Haile Gold Mine Creek. The mine was damaged during the Civil War (1861-1865).
A sixty-five-stamp mill was constructed in 1882 by E.G. Spilsbury operating till 1908. The Haile Gold Mines Company conducted large-scale mining from mid-1937 to 1942.
In 1940, the Red Hill Deposit at the mine was discovered using crude-induced polarisation techniques. From 1951, mineralite was mined by Mineral Mining from sericite-rich pits. The mining of mineralite stopped in 1991.
The area was explored by Earl Jones in 1966. Many companies explored the project area between the 1970s and 1980s.
In the 1980s, the first modern exploration and production at the mine were completed. The property and surrounding area were explored by Piedmont Mining from 1981 to 1985.
Amax signed a joint venture agreement with Piedmont in June 1991 establishing Haile Mining (HMC) in May 1992.
HMC explored, drilled, and evaluated the property from 1992 to 1994 and prepared mineral resource estimate and technical report of the property.
In 1998, Amax was acquired by Kinross and purchased Piedmont’s interest in the joint venture. Kinross sold the mine to Romarco Minerals in October 2007 and commenced drilling in late 2007. The drilling was suspended during 2013-2014.
Romarco was acquired by OceanaGold in October 2015. OceanaGold constructed a new Carbon-In-Leach Flotation Process Plant during 2015 and 2016, power upgrades, a lined PAG overburden storage area, and a tails storage facility.
Haile Gold Mine Geology and Mineralisation
The mine is within the Carolina Terrane, a northeast-trending state belt. The Haile district consists of nine gold deposits covering a 3,500m*1,000m area.
The laminated siltstones and volcanic rocks of the Upper Persimmon Fork Formation hosts gold deposits. The deposits are dissected by barren diabase dikes striking north-northwest.
The gold mineralisation of the mine is assumed to be around 549 million years (Ma) postdating peak volcanism. The mine is interpreted as a low sulphide disseminated gold deposit.
The mineralisation consists of gold, silver, pyrite, pyrrhotite, and hydrothermal breccia clasts. Quartz-sericite-pyrite alteration lies above greenschist facies metamorphosed with carbonate-chlorite-pyrite alteration.
Haile Gold Mine Mineral Reserves
The proven open pit mineral reserves of the Haile Gold Mine are 3.6Mt containing 0.12Moz gold at a grading of 1.03g/t and 0.2Moz silver at a grading of 1.6g/t.
The probable open pit mineral reserves of the mine are 32.8Mt containing 1.71Moz gold at a grading of 1.62g/t and 2.5Moz silver at a grading of 2.4g/t.
The total (proven and probable) open pit mineral reserves are 36.4Mt containing 1.82Moz gold at a grading of 1.56g/t and 2.7Moz silver at a grading of 2.3g/t.
The proven underground mineral reserves of the mine are 0.1Mt containing 0.01Moz gold at a grading of 4.53g/t and 0.01Moz silver at a grading of 2g/t.
The probable underground mineral reserves are 7.7Mt containing 0.88Moz gold at a grading of 3.54g/t and 0.5Moz silver at a grading of 2g/t.
The total (proven and probable) underground mineral reserves of the mine are 7.8Mt containing 0.89Moz gold at a grading of 3.56g/t and 0.5Moz silver at a grading of 2g/t.
Mining and Ore Processing Methods
The Haile Gold Mine is mined through conventional open-pit mining methods. The processed tonnes average approximately 3.7 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa).
The processed tonnes average 3.8Mtpa after adding underground production. As per the geotechnical assessments, the Horseshoe and Palomino deposits are mined by the longhole open-stoping mining method.
The recovery of ores is done by the processing plant utilising the conventional flowsheet.
The flowsheet consists of primary jaw crushing, conventional SAG, ball mill and pebble crusher (SABC), rougher flotation, two-stage concentrate regrind followed by an Isamill, and Carbon In Leach (CIL) leaching of reground concentrate and flotation tailings.
The CIL is followed by carbon stripping, electrowinning, smelting of bullion, and cyanide destruction.
Between 2018 and 2020, additional equipment was installed in the processing plant to expand its capacity up to 4Mtpa.
The plant processes ores at milling rates between 3.5Mtpa and 3.8Mtpa respectively.
Haile Gold Mine Infrastructure
The infrastructure of the mine consists of existing Potentially Acid Generating (PAG) facilities, Johnny’s PAG (JPAG) Overburden Storage Area (OSA), Duckwood Tailings Storage Facility (TSF), and Fresh Water Storage Dam (FWSD). The PAG, JPAG, and Duckwood TSF will be expanded.
The underground infrastructure includes upgrading and extending the ventilation, dewatering, power lines, water, and air supply.
The underground surface facilities include Run-of-Mine (RoM) pad area, stockpiles, a CRF plant, a truck shop, offices, and a laydown area.
Power Transmission
The estimated power demand at the mine site is 23MVA. The existing 69kV substation and transmission lines will be upgraded as confirmed by the Lynches River Electric Cooperative study.
The existing transmission line from the main substation to Pond 465 has been extended to the underground yard for underground operation.
Additionally, a 24.9-13.8kV transformer has been installed to power the CRF plant. The above-ground facilities are being powered by two additional (24.9kV-480V) transformers.
A 24.9-13.8kV (6MVA) transformer is fed by a separate extension. This transformer supplies electricity to the underground operation on the surface and the underground distribution system.
Haile Gold Mine Contractors
Supported by Call & Nicholas and NewFields, SRK Consulting prepared the 2024 technical report of the mine.
These companies also prepared technical reports of the mine in 2022, 2020, and 2017.
Romarco prepared a 2011 feasibility study, a mineral resource estimate in March 2012, and another feasibility study in November 2014 of the mine.
RESPEC was selected by OceanaGold to improve drill-and-blast operations in the mine in April 2019. The contract was completed by RESPEC in October 2019.
The ground-up construction of the facilities of the mine was completed by J.M. Cope in 2018.
The contract included 3657.6m2 (12,000ft2) metal maintenance building, 640.08m2 (2,100ft2) guard and medical facility, 6651.34m2 (21,822ft2) truck shop and office facility, and 8839.2m2 (29,000ft2) administrative building.
In November 2015, Andritz Automation was awarded a contract to deliver its process control systems for the mine.
The scope of the contract included the design and delivery of the process control application software and an Andritz dynamic process simulator to train operators.
Blanchard Machinery is supporting the development and expansion of the mine with its equipment and personnel.
KCI Technologies was contracted by M3 Engineering to design a new 27.43m*12.80m (length*width) bridge over U.S. 601 so that the new haul road connects to the new site and 212.05-hectare TSF.
The 3657.6m2 (12,000ft2) Haile Gold assay laboratory for the mine was designed and developed by M3 Engineering.
