PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The semiautogenous grinding (SAG) mill at gold major Newcrest Mining's Cadia Concentrator 1 is still offline.
The mill was taken offline for an inspection on October 18, which revealed more loose windings than initially anticipated. While a repair and remediation plan was being developed, the SAG mill would remain offline for at least the next five weeks, Newcrest said on Thursday.
The Concentrator 2 SAG mill continued to operate at full capacity, with ore from the Cadia East operation being trucked to this mill.
To reduce the impact on production, a conveyor was being installed to transport the ore from the high-pressure grinding rolls to the ball mill circuit, bypassing the Concentrator 1 SAG mill.
Construction of the conveyor could take up to six weeks to complete.
The miner was unable to provide a guidance on how the SAG mill issue would affect either 2016 production or cost guidance.