Arguably the largest gold mine in Africa outside of South Africa, the Kibali Gold project offered DRA an excellent opportunity to further flex its muscles in the DRC. A joint venture for Randgold Resources, Anglogold Ashanti and Congolese parastatal, SOKIMO, Kibali will build up to production of approximately 600 000 ounces of gold per year. Located 17km from the town of Watsa in the administrative district of Haut Uélé in Province Orientale, the mine consists of both open pit and underground sections. Its probable mineral reserves are estimated at 82 million tonnes totalling 11½million ounces of gold. Some 45 million tonnes are designated to be open-pit mined and 37 million tonnes are planned to be mined by underground methods.

Construction of the mine comprises the design, procurement and construction of the metallurgical facility, hydropower stations and a back-up thermal power facility; construction of the tailings storage facility; the relocation of villages; open pit mining; a decline complex; a vertical shaft and all shared infrastructure. First gold production is set for the fourth quarter of 2013. DRA’s initial scope of work includes the design, procurement and project management of:
● The metallurgical plant
● Infrastructure including roads, dams, mine offices, stores, laydown areas and extension of airport runway
● A 45 MVA backup power system
● Tailings system for 6.1 million tons lined concentrate tailings dam and 7.6 million tons float tailings dam (Initial phase of final complex capacity of 25 million tons CIL tailings storage and 37 million tons flotation tailings storage)
● A 22 MVA hydro power plant

Power - From Backup To Hydro
The mine will operate off of 47 MVA in 4 hydroelectric power stations designed by HPP from France with detail engineering and construction management by DRA of the intake weir, canal, penstocks and hydropower house. The largest of these stations is situated 30 kms away from the Mine at the confluence of the Nzoro and Kibali rivers. There are 3 smaller stations on the Kibali river. The 22MVA station is a run-of river scheme requiring the intake  of the  river via a 4,5 km canal feeding  two penstock lines 3,5 m diameter and 1,2 kms long. The hydroelectric power will be augmented by a back-up power system during the dry season and for start-up of high dynamic demand systems like the Mill installation. The back-up system consists of thirty 1.5 MVA (1.2 MW) diesel generators supplied and installed by APS with the support services engineered by DRA. The main fuel farm with a capacity of 2600 m3 will supply the generator farm including, servicing mining operations and the vehicle fleet. Two additional fuel farms each with a 1200 m3 storage capacity will be built to service the open cast and underground mining sections.

Processing Plant
DRA’s scope of work on the processing plant design will treat 3.6MTPA Oxide ore (initially) through the Oxide circuit and 3.6MTPA Sulphide ore through the Sulphide circuit. The Oxide circuit will be comprised of the following sub processes; primary crushing, milling, gravity concentration, flash flotation, carbon in leach, detox and tailings disposal. The Sulphide circuit will be comprised of the following sub processes; primary and secondary crushing, milling, gravity concentration, flash flotation, rougher flotation, concentrate handling (thickening and ultra-fine grinding), pump cell circuit and tailings disposal. The loaded carbon from the pump cell circuit and carbon in leach circuit will be batch treated separately in elution circuits followed by electrowinning of gold eluate. On completion of the KCD Oxide reserves the Oxide circuit will be utilised as a dedicated Sulphide circuit  and added to the existing sulphide stream to enable the combined treatment of Sulphide ore at 7.2MTPA. Satellite oxide reserves will be campaign treated in the oxide circuit, when a suitable campaign volume is stockpiled. The project is currently in execution with earthworks almost complete on the plan and the first steel being erected on completed civils.