Modern Mining September 2015

MINING News

Vast commissions CIL plant at Pickstone-Peerless

further step in the process of transitioning Vast into an operating mining entity.” Pickstone-Peerless is located 120 km south-west of Harare and 20 km from Chegutu. The project has an open-pit mineral reserve of approximately 1,0 Moz and approximately 2,2 Moz of under- ground potential. The Pickstone oxide pit is expected to be mined to a maximum depth of 80 m and the Peerless oxide pit to 40 m. 

a targeted initial annualised gold produc- tion of circa 10 000 oz Au – from an initial mining rate of 10 000 tonnes of ore per month – from the project’s opencast oxide gold cap. Roy Pitchford, Chief Executive Officer, commented:“The commencement of gold production at Pickstone-Peerless gold mine in Zimbabwe, following the com- mencement of production at the Manaila polymetallic mine in Romania, will be a

Vast Resources plc, the AIM-listed resource and development company with gold proj- ects in Zimbabwe and Romania, reports it has commissioned the ball mill and the carbon in leach (CIL) plant at the Pickstone- Peerless gold mine in Zimbabwe, thus facilitating the start of gold adsorption and marking a further milestone in its transition into a cash generative mining company. The mine is being commissioned with

Mining operations underway at Pickstone-Peerless. The initial mining rate is 10 000 tonnes of ore per month (photo: Vast Resources).

Duwi Scoping Study results “highly encouraging” Australian explorer Sovereign Metals has released the results of a Scoping Study on its Duwi flake graphite project located in central Malawi, 15 km east of the capital, Lilongwe. It says the project economics and technical viability are highly encouraging, highlighting its potential to become a low cost/high margin flake graphite producer. The Base Case involves processing 30 Mt of indicated and inferred material at a rate of 1,5 Mt/a over a 20-year life to produce approximately 110 000 t/a of flake graphite concentrate (>95% Total Graphitic Content or TGC). The life of mine throughput of 30 Mt comprises 77 % in the indicated mineral resource category and 23 % in the inferred category. The study estimates a life of mine

dimensions of approximately 1 500 m (length) and 240 m (depth). All processing will take place in a dedi- cated, purpose-built processing plant located close to the deposit. The flake graphite product will be packed and con- tainerised on site and transported via road/ rail and ship to the end-users. The process flowsheet is based on flota- tion test-work carried out at SGS Canada (Lakefield). This constitutes a conventional flotation concentrator plant incorporating crushing, screening, flash flotation, milling, de-sanding and graphite flotation/polish- ing to recover commercial grade graphite flake. The estimated installed power for the process plant and services is 5,29 MW with annual power consumption of 29 235 MWh. Power will be supplied from a combination of grid power and on-site generation. 

operating cost of US$498 per tonne of concentrate (including transport costs FOB Nacala Port). It puts the initial capital investment at US$112 million (before con- tingency) with a 1,7 year payback. The proposedmethod of mining is by an open pit located on the Duwi Main deposit and a shallow satellite pit on the Duwi Bend deposit. A contract mining strategy was selected to mitigate project risk, although operational management will be retained by Sovereign personnel. Many of the design criteria inputs have been derived from earlier Malawian projects or studies with adjustments for time and the specifics of the Duwi project. The Duwi Main open pit will be mined in several stages and will have eventual

16  MODERN MINING  September 2015