mining news
7
07.13
Pan African has successfully commissioned
the Barberton Tailings Retreatment Project
(BTRP) at its Barberton Mines (BGMO) and
on Friday 28 June 2013 undertook its inaugu-
ral gold pour. The BTRP, which commenced
construction in April 2012, was completed on
schedule and within budget.
Situated adjacent to the Bramber Tailings
Storage Facility (TSF) at the Fairview mine,
the retreatment project is designed to retreat
100 000 tonnes of gold tailings per month at
an estimated average cash cost of US$800/
oz. The plant utilises a CIL process followed
by electro-winning and smelting to produce a
saleable gold product. The project will source
about 12 000 tonnes per month of current
tailings via a pipeline from the Fairview con-
centrator and BIOX
®
plant and some 88 000
tonnes per month from the TSF.
The BTRP is expected to ramp up to full
capacity of 100 000 tonnes per month at an
average recovered grade of 0,52 g/t by the
second quarter of 2014. It has a current life of
mine of six years and will provide Pan African
with an additional 20 000 oz of gold per an-
num, increasing BGMO’s gold output by ap-
proximately 20 % to 115 000 oz per year.
The total capital expenditure budget of
the project was R305 million (US$31million),
of which approximately 90 % has been in-
voiced to date. Pan African reports that all of
the construction capital requirements were
ASX-listed Tiger Resources reports it has
set a new record for monthly production at
its Kipoi copper project in the DRC’s Katanga
Province.
Tiger produced 4 422 tonnes of copper
in concentrate in June from its heavy media
separation (HMS) plant, 47 % above the HMS
plant’s nameplate capacity and 10 % higher
than the previous monthly record of 4 007
tonnes achieved in March 2013.
In April the company produced 3 263
tonnes of copper and 3 431 tonnes in May.
Total quarterly production was 11 116 tonnes
of copper, a record quarter.
“As we proceed deeper into the Kipoi Cen-
tral deposit, the rock becomes stronger with
higher contained copper content,” says Ti-
ger’s Managing Director, Brad Marwood. “We
find increasing production performance with
better recovery, better concentrate grades,
and lower costs.”
Tiger has produced 20 604 t of copper so
far this calendar year, 11 % higher than the
budget of 18 500 t of copper. Waste mining
has been accelerated to maintain production,
which should reduce operating costs during
the latter part of the year.
Modifications to the processing plant,
which include the replacement of conveyors
and other minor changes to enhance the pro-
duction performance, have reportedly been
completed at nominal cost.
Barberton plant completed on time and within budget
The Barberton Tailings Retreatment Project has been commissioned and recently poured its first gold
(photo: Pan African Resources).
funded via internal cash flows from BGMO.
Basil Read Matomo, which successfully
constructed Pan African’s Phoenix Platinum
Chrome Tailings Retreatment Plant, designed
and constructed the BTRP. The project is
managed by an experienced team including
BGMO’s General Manager, Casper Strydom,
and Metallurgy Manager Jonathan Irons. The
BTRP has created an additional 86 direct em-
ployment opportunities in the Barberton area.
Ron Holding, joint interim CEO, comment-
ed: “We are proud to have commissioned this
project on schedule and within budget. The
achievement reaffirms our ability to deliver
on our development plans at our operations.
It also demonstrates the potential for future
success of our other organic growth projects
at Barberton and Evander.”
David Knox has retired from the position of CEO
of Firestone Energy, effective immediately. He had
been CEO of the company since September 2011
and oversaw the recent reorganisation of the com-
pany and the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on
Firestone’s main undertaking, its Joint Venture ‘in-
terest’ in the Waterberg coal project in Limpopo.
The company is listed on the ASX and JSE.
The DFS is expected to be complete at the end
of July 2013. Firestone says it is anticipated that
it will confirm the economic viability of develop-
ing the Waterberg project. The Joint Venture has
a Memorandum of Understanding with Eskom to
provide 10 Mt/a of coal from the project and it is
expected that deliveries of coal to the utility will
start in Q1, 2015.
Knox has been replaced by Stephen Miller who
has significant experience in the financing and
development of large scale project developments
of this nature. This experience will be drawn upon,
says Firestone, as the Waterberg project progress-
es towards the completion of the DFS, the project
financing and expected start up in Q4, 2013.
The first stage of the project is to develop both
the Smitspan mine, which has a substantial mea-
sured thermal coal resource, and the Vetleegte
mine, which ranks as a substantial metallurgical
coal deposit.
C
hange at the top at Firestone Energy
Kipoi project sets new production record
These enhancements allow for increased
materials handling and better separation of
concentrate from the waste rock. Coupled
with the improving properties of the ore, this
should result in sustained outperformance of
the plant, says Tiger. The increased quantity
of ore established with grade control should
also help to sustain higher production levels
throughout 2014.
The Kipoi project covers an area of 55 km
2
and is located 75 km NNW of the city of
Lubumbashi. The project contains a 12 km
sequence of mineralised Roan sediments
that host at least five known deposits. The
principal deposit is Kipoi Central, which con-
tains a zone of high grade copper mineralisa-
tion within a much larger, lower grade global
resource.
Tiger is undertaking a phased develop-
ment of the resources at the Kipoi site, where
the Stage 1 HMS plant is in production and
is expected to process 2,7 Mt of ore grad-
ing approximately 7 % Cu to produce a total
of 113 000 tonnes of copper in concentrate
over its 39-month life. According to Tiger, the
Stage 2 solvent-extraction electrowinning
(SX/EW) plant is targeted to come on stream
in 2014.
