MM November 2016 Final

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November 2016 MODERN MINING 7
MINING News
in Q2 2016, major repair and renewal work
on surface plant and equipment is tak-
ing place. This work will improve surface
equipment availability and utilisation in
order to maximise gold recoveries fol-
lowing increased ore production from
underground. This work was due to be
completed by the end of October 2016.
Future plans are underway to refurbish
the processing plant at Shamva to 70 000
tonnes per month capacity.
Construction of the new plant and
TSF at Mazowe, 50 km north of Harare, is
almost complete and commissioning is
scheduled for Q4 2016. The new process-
ing facility at Mazowe will significantly
increase capacity at the mine to 70 000
tonnes per month.
Redwing, located about 20 km north-
east of Mutare in the east of Zimbabwe,
continues to improve production fol-
lowing the resumption of operations in
November 2015. Increased production
to over 22 000 tonnes per month is now
scheduled for Q1 2017. Future expansion
plans, which will increase production to
50 000 tonnes per month, will commence
in the second half of 2017.
Ken Mekani, Chief Executive Officer,
Metallon Corporation, commented:
“Metallon delivered an impressive perfor-
mance in Q3 2016 with gold production
increasing 18 % and C1 costs reducing 4 %
compared to the previous quarter. These
exceptional results are due to improved
production across our mines and the result
of increased investment in our operations
over the last year. This achievement dem-
onstrates the future potential of our assets
in Zimbabwe.”
Acacia Coal to acquire
interest in Riversdale
ASX-listed Acacia Coal has entered a bind-
ing agreement with vendors of Coalvent
Limited to acquire a 74 % interest in the
Riversdale Anthracite Colliery (RAC), an
anthracite project in South Africa, together
with a capital raising to raise approximately
$2 million.
According to Acacia Coal, drilling and
feasibility studies completed previously
have demonstrated the RAC as a high
grade, low impurity anthracite asset that
is ideally positioned to service a South
African anthracite market facing significant
shortages in low impurity product, as well
as product into the seaborne market for
export.
Acacia will prioritise efforts to refresh
and update the bankable feasibility study
completed in 2010 and work to update the
RAC’s 2004 JORC resource so that develop-
ment may proceed.
The RAC is currently held by Riversdale
Holdings Proprietary Limited (a mem-
ber of the Rio Tinto group of companies).
Coalvent has agreed to acquire the proj-
ect from Rio Tinto and then vend it into
Acacia. Coalvent has also been successful
in bringing together significant intellectual
property associated with the RAC, which
will greatly assist Acacia’s efforts to prog-
ress development.
Under the agreement, Coalvent’s expe-
riencedmanagement team, which includes
mining executives Hugh Callaghan, Robert
Scott, Peet Snyders and Filippo Faralla – all
of whom have extensive experience in
South Africa and the RAC project, together
with a track record in the development and
sale of mineral resources – will join Acacia,
with Callaghan and Scott to join Acacia’s
board as Managing Director and Finance
Director respectively. 