Mining Weekly

Pan African Resources’ Elikhulu operation, in Evander, Mpumalanga is achieving a better-than-expected production performance, CEO Cobus Loots noted during an investor and media tour at the operation, on Thursday.

As reported by Mining Weekly Online last month, the Elikhulu project, which started producing in September 2018 and uses a conventional carbon-in-leach circuit with a proprietary pre-oxidation process, delivered 15 292 oz of gold in its first four months.

Elikhulu operations manager Oriel Shikwambana explained that optimisation processes at Elikhulu are ongoing, with the plant having achieved a throughput of 1.1-million tonnes in January.

The full 1.2-million-tonne design throughput is expected to be reached this month.

“The plant was [initially] designed for a throughput of one-million tonnes a month . . . given that Elikhulu has improved recoveries compared to the Evander Tailings Retreatment Plant, we decided to make use of economies of scale and expand the Elikhulu plant, adding two new tanks, as well as a new tailings system.” 

Elikhulu will, therefore, also treat the 200 000 t/m produced at Evander to meet the the full 1.2-million-tonne design throughput.

The commissioning of the final tank is scheduled for the end of February. Additionally, the completion of Phase 1B of the new tailings storage facility is expected to be completed by April.

Shikwambana explained that his team believe the plant can achieve slightly better recoveries with a few tweaks at the plant, but that the priority for 2019 is to reduce operational costs.

He noted that the team has already embarked on initiatives in this regard.  

Loots noted that the recoveries achieved to date at the plant were as advised in the bankable feasibility study, but that further improvement would hardly be considered a bad thing.

Similarly, Elikhulu is maintaining an all-in-sustaining cost of about $600/oz.  

Additionally, the operating cost is around R32/t. He noted that the operation was the lowest-cost producer in South Africa, by order of magnitude.

Shikwambana pointed out that the retreatment of the three slimes dams, Kinross, Leslie/Bracken and Wikkelhaak will result in reduced environmental liability as the tailings will be deposited at one large tailings storage facility (TSF) site.

Loots noted that, “in light of what has happened in Brazil, Pan African Resources is commissioning an audit for dormant and active tailings sites. The TSFs are not designed to fail; we have never had a failure and we have stringent monitoring systems in place.”

He added that the company had also reviewed hard rock mining safety after the Lily Mine accident.

Loots concluded that Pan African expects Elikhulu to maintain a throughput of 1.2-million tonnes a month for the remainder of the year, producing around 70 000 oz of gold by year-end.