PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed KBL Mining on Thursday announced the production of saleable lead and zinc concentrate from its Mineral Hill mine, in New South Wales.
The miner told shareholders that the ability to process polymetallic ore from the recently exposed A lode was a major milestone for the operation, with minimal changes to the existing process plant resulting in the copper circuit being converted into a zinc circuit, while the lead circuit remained unaltered.
A one-week process trial to produce a saleable lead and zinc concentrate started on December 1, and preliminary results indicated that the plant was meeting performance expectations.
Assay results to date have confirmed recoveries at 87% for lead and 55% for zinc, and KBL said that these initial results were considered highly encouraging, with further improvements, particularly in zinc recovery, expected from optimisation work now in progress.
At the completion of the trial, the zinc circuit would be converted back into a copper circuit to produce copper and lead concentrate.
Permanent modifications to cater for the production of all three concentrates would be implemented in the coming months.