DRA readies for New Liberty gold plant handover

12th June 2015 By: Natalie Greve - Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa-based global engineering and project delivery group DRA on Friday said it was on target to hand the New Liberty gold plant over to its Canadian owner, dual-listed Aureus Mining.

DRA and Aureus achieved the first gold pour at the New Liberty project, in north-west Liberia, earlier this month.

DRA had been involved at the New Liberty gold project since its inception in May 2011, and had completed the assignment on an engineering, procurement and construction management contract basis.

DRA CEO Paul Thomson commented that the timely handover of the plant was achieved despite the "extreme challenges" of implementing a project in Liberia at the peak of the Ebola crisis.

The processing plant was now ready to move into full production, said Aureus CEO and president David Reading.

DRA had also completed the prefeasibility study, the definitive feasibility study and the front-end engineering design, prior to the start of construction.

The project comprised the development of a gold processing facility capable of treating 90 000 t/m of ore through a two-stage crushing circuit and a primary mill.

Gold was leached in the carbon-in-leach circuit and gravity gold was leached with an intensive leach reactor.