PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Gold miner PanTerra Gold on Tuesday reported that its processing plant at the Las Lagunas project, in the Dominican Republic, was now running at its design capacity of 100 t/h.
During November last year, the miner halved production at Las Lagunas after experiencing mechanical issues with the ball mill.
A replacement ball mill motor has now been installed, with the mill handling the grind of coarser refractory tailings from the Pueblo Viejo mine, currently being fed into the plant. PanTerra noted that the existing motor, which was still under warranty, would be rewound so as to achieve nameplate capacity and then serve as a spare.
With the regrind section of the process plant now operating to design capacity, the technical team could concentrate on fine-tuning the three other circuits to optimise gold and silver recoveries, the company said.
Meanwhile, PanTerra was also investigating the prospects of claims for compensation against several suppliers, as expected income for the past six months had been significantly reduced as a result of the design and manufacturing issues experienced.