PERTH (miningweekly.com) - ASX-listed Discovery Metals has restarted milling operations at its Boseto copper project, in Botswana.
The miner temporarily suspended milling following the failure of a bearing in the ball mill gearbox. However, Discovery said on Wednesday that this had now been repaired, and milling of the 45 000 t crushed ore stockpile and further uncrushed ore stocks have restarted.
At the end of last year, Discovery faced a temporary delay in the deepening of its Zeta pit, after the Botswana Department of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources told the company to cease deepening work at the pit, following a localised failure of an interim pit wall situated in the hanging wall overburden.
At the end of December, Discovery resumed normal development of the Zeta openpit, after the Botswana government accepted a geotechnical report and lifted the restrictions on the deepening of the pit.
At the time, Discovery said that a number of initiatives were being progressed to lift mine production and to recover the lost development time. These included improved hiring and training of operators and maintenance personnel, early development of the Plutus openpit, procurement of larger capacity mining equipment, and the use of an additional hired mining fleet to accelerate pit development.