Gold mining operation Kinross Tasiast lately formally celebrated the commissioning of a Hitachi EX8000-6 excavator, now the most important mining excavator of its type in Mauritania – it’s the first EX8000 within the nation and solely the fourth to have been delivered in Africa.
It’s in face shovel configuration and weighs greater than 800 t, plus is almost 10 m in top, with a 40 m³ bucket – Kinross Tasiast says it can considerably enhance the effectivity of operations due to elevated loading capability and optimisation of transport cycles.
Assembled and commissioned in only one month, it says “this mission was carried out due to the exemplary mobilisation of Kinross Tasiast’s groups, technical companions and repair suppliers, illustrating a excessive degree of coordination, know-how and collaboration. This commissioning marks a brand new milestone within the growth of Kinross Tasiast’s mining capabilities and demonstrates confidence within the potential and way forward for the positioning.”
The EX8000 was acquired for Tasiast together with a Caterpillar 995 wheel loader final yr. The mine has labored intently with Hitachi distributor for Mauritania, SMT Africa.
At Tasiast, ore and waste rock is mined in 10 m benches by standard open pit strategies primarily from the West Department pit till Might 2024. Mining additionally began on the Piment pit in Might 2024 and the Fennec satellite tv for pc pit in June 2025. The bench top at West Department was modified to fifteen m benches for Part 5 of the pit (WB5).
The brand new EX8000 will work with the Tasiast truck fleet of 47 Caterpillar 793D (220 t), six Hitachi EH4000 (220 t) and two Komatsu HD785 (92 t) models. The haulage fleet thus far has primarily been loaded by six Caterpillar 6060 shovels and two Bucyrus RH340B excavators, with three Caterpillar 994 front-end loaders utilised for rehandling functions and 4 Komatsu PC1250s for auxiliary loading of the smaller Komatsu vehicles.
As well as, throughout the enlargement of the processing plant to 24,000 t/d, one Caterpillar 6060 shovel and 5 Hitachi EH4000 haul vehicles have been added to the first cellular fleet to assist manufacturing. Additional to the plant enlargement, mining at Piment added an extra two Cat 793 and one EH4000 vehicles, and Fennec satellite tv for pc pit mining added eight Caterpillar 777 haul vehicles, one Caterpillar 6030 shovel , and one Caterpillar 992 wheel loader.
Blasting strategies, together with presplit and buffer gap blasting, are employed to guard the pit partitions. Ore is fed straight from the mine and stockpile to the first crusher. The grinding circuit produces a product measurement of 80% passing 90 microns which is processed in a standard carbon-in leach (CIL) circuit to supply gold bullion. Gold restoration averages 93%. Tailings slurry from the CIL course of is at the moment pumped to the TSF.
Industrial manufacturing of gold at Tasiast started in January 2008 below Crimson Again. Because the Kinross acquisition of Tasiast in 2010, roughly 5.1 Moz. have been produced by Tasiast by way of the tip of 2025. In the identical interval, a complete of 1,031 Mt of fabric have been mined from numerous pits, together with round 77 Mt in 2025.
Waste rock is used for haul street and tailings dam development as wanted. The prevailing street community is effectively developed and requires continued upkeep. Further roads may also be required all through the lifetime of the mine. These roads shall be constructed utilizing the present mining and assist mining fleets.
Electrical energy on the mine website is equipped by a mixture of thermal and photo voltaic technology. For thermal energy, the mine website has two main technology crops equipped by heavy gas oil that generate 40 MWe (Part 2) and 19 MWe (Part 1) with medium pace reciprocating engines. There are additionally two technology crops (Part 1 – 14 MWe, Tasiast Workforce Village Plan – 9 MWe) that are usually solely run throughout upkeep intervals on the main technology crops.
Tasiast additionally constructed a photovoltaic solar energy plant with energy technology capability of 34 MWe and a battery system of 18 MWe, with the primary photo voltaic generated energy to the positioning grid delivered in December 2023. The plant generates constructive returns and reduces CO2 emissions by as much as 44,000 t per yr, or roughly 544,000 t from begin date over the lifetime of mine, which may save roughly 160 million litres of HFO over the identical interval.
