JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – A ball mill failure at Vancouver-based Scorpio Mining’s Nuestra Señora mill facility, in Mexico, will cut the facility’s second quarter throughput by 23%, the company announced on Friday.

The facility had been expected to produce about 90 000 t of material from the Nuestra Señora silver/zinc/lead/copper mine during the second quarter of the year.

“An unfortunate crack in the ball mill A trunnion at the Nuestra Señora mill facility has required a shutdown of that ball mill and [a] limiting of the processing throughput to ball mill B,” commented chairperson and CEO Peter Hawley.

Processing with both ball mills would resume by mid-July, he added.

Scorpio expected the mine facility to again produce the targeted 90 000 t of material during the fourth quarter of the year, adding that its overall 2010 throughput targets remained unchanged.

The facility processed 92 658 t of material during the first quarter of the year.

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