PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Cleveland has restarted gold production at its Premier mine, in Brazil, after implementing the first stage of its expansion plans.

Operations at Premier were suspended in the second quarter of this year as Cleveland completed key plant upgrades to increase the gravity circuit from 40 t/h to 100 t/h by installing a new jaw crusher and cone crusher. The company said on Thursday that a newly renovated ball mill would also be added.

A new flotation circuit had been successfully commissioned and was operating well, with its initial targeted throughput rate of 28 t/h sustained.

The flotation circuit would require additional tankage to expand its ultimate capacity to 100 t/h and reach the final targeted recovery when processing sulphide material.

Cleveland MD David Mendelawitz told shareholders that the completion of key components of the plant expansion and the restart of mining and processing operations marked important first steps in the company’s turnaround strategy for the Premier gold mine.

“We are very pleased to see major improvements in several key operational metrics very early on, including dramatic improvements in mechanical availability, volume and grade of exposed ore, and recovery of gold from sulphide ore.”

Gold recovery from the combined gravity and flotation circuits had peaked at 84%, and averaged 70% to 80%, depending on the ore type. This was expected to increase to the targeted level of 85% following a planned optimisation programme that would be undertaken in the near term.

Mendelawitz said that, while there was still plenty of work ahead for the company, these first steps were positive, and Cleveland would continue to execute its growth plans in a focused, diligent and measured way.

Cleveland was ultimately hoping to more than double gold production at Premier to 40 000 oz/y by the end of 2015. The expansion would be completed in three stages, with the increase in the gravity circuit seen as stage one.

The second stage of the expansion would see Cleveland add a new flotation circuit to directly treat the gravity tailings, while the third stage involved the expansion of the Premier gold resource inventory through substantial further drilling.

The miner on Thursday said a new reverse circulation drilling rig had arrived on site to complement two existing grade control rigs and was initially assisting in advancing grade control drilling within the Premier openpit, in preparation for the progressive ramp-up in the mining rate to 100 t/h of ore, following the commissioning of the new ball mill.

The rig would also be used in the short-term to drill some key resource extension holes previously outlined at Premier East, followed by initial exploration holes over the Vanuza prospect to the south of the openpit operations.