PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Lubuk Mandi mine, in Malaysia, has poured its first gold, ASX-listed GBM Resources reported on Wednesday.
GBM, which owns a 36% interest in the project, told shareholders that the first gold pour demonstrated that the process and equipment at the Lubuk Mandi mine were functioning as planned.
Commissioning of a newly constructed tailings treatment plant was advancing and was moving to operate on a continuous basis during the June quarter, with mining on day-shift taking place at a sufficient rate to provide a constant supply to the mill.
The Lubuk Mandi plant was designed to treat 300 000 t/y of ore, at an average head grade of around 0.7 g/t gold.
GBM noted that while there were still some design modifications to be made, performance during the commissioning had confirmed that the plant could operate at design capacity.
The company further noted that several components of the plant had been designed with the contingency to double throughput to 600 000 t/y, with gold production expected to reach 9 000 oz/y.