PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The commissioning of the Burbanks gold treatment plant, in Western Australia, is expected to start in the second half of July, owner Maximus Resources reported on Wednesday, announcing it had secured a second toll treatment agreement for ore supply.
Maximus has struck a deal with fellow-listed Empire Resources, which would see up to 150 000 t of ore being supplied from the Penny’s Find gold project to the Burbanks gold treatment plant, starting in July this year.
Empire started mining at the Penny’s Find project in May this year, and is currently stockpiling ore at the mine site. The ore will be transported to the Burbanks plant on the confirmation of transport approvals from the Coolgardie Shire, with commercial milling operations to start shortly thereafter.
Ore from the Penny’s Find mine had initially been scheduled for toll treatment at the Lakewood Mill, owned by Golden Mile Milling; however, the company said that owing to scheduling problems at the Lakewood Mill and Empire’s desire to obtain immediate gold production, a second toll treatment agreement was needed.
Maximus said on Wednesday that this second toll treatment agreement had the Burbanks treatment plant scheduled to operate at its current nameplate capacity, with the company adding that once steady-state operations have been achieved, Maximus will evaluate the production performance of the plant to determine if throughput could be increased without significant capital injection.
The Burbanks processing facility, which was acquired from gold miner Ramelius Resources for A$2.5-million in 2016, includes a two-stage crushing, ball milling and carbon-in-pulp circuit of a nominal 180 000 t/y capacity.
The facility has been on care and maintenance since late 2014.