Photo by: Bloomberg
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The maiden gold pour at the Cascavel gold mine, in Brazil, is on track for July, as the commissioning of the gravity processing plant gets under way.
ASX-listed Orinoco Gold said on Wednesday that it was preparing for the planned production build-up in mid-July, when the plant was expected to be fully operational, one year after a decision was made to change the location of the processing plant from the Sertao gold mine to Cascavel.
The initial commissioning was expected in March, but a Federal Customs import clearance delay had suspended commissioning start-up plans, with a staggered release of the imported equipment. At the time, the company assured that commissioning would kick off within 30 days of receipt of the final shipping container.
The last of the construction equipment had arrived on site in May, allowing the group to complete the gravity circuit in June.
Now, around 5 000 t of low-grade development material would be used for the ore commissioning process, with parcels of production material being run through the plant in batches prior to production build-up, Orinoco said.
Orinoco MD Mark Papendieck had returned to Brazil to oversee the commissioning process.