PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior Artemis Resources has started the refurbishment of its newly acquired Radio Hill processing plant, in Western Australia.
In addition to upgrading the crushing, grinding and flotation circuits, Artemis will also install a new high recovery gold circuit capable of processing 500 000 t/y.
Artemis earlier this year completed the acquisition of the Radio Hill project from Fox Resources for A$2-million in cash and the issue of 20-million Artemis shares. The project included the 500 000 t/y nickel and copper processing plant, a tailings storage facility, administration and maintenance buildings and a fully developed underground mine, which was placed on care and maintenance in 2008.
The refurbishment work is expected to take nine months to complete, and will be funded by a special purpose loan facility designed to minimise the impact on Artemis’ current cash reserves.
“It is important that Artemis starts the work now to refurbish, upgrade and recommission our Radio Hill plant so that we can prepare for production of gold, cobalt, copper, nickel, zinc and platinum-group elements from our growing resource base in the Karratha area,” said Artemis executive chairperson David Lenigas.
“The addition of a state of the art and modern gold processing circuit will also enable us to consider large scale bulk sampling of the conglomerate gold projects. Even though we are producing positive cash flow from copper sales from our Whundo copper mine, near Radio Hill, the board is committed to moving Artemis towards becoming a significant multi-metals production company as soon as possible.”