JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – UK-headquartered Vast Resources on Monday reported stronger operational results from its mines in Romania and Zimbabwe, with third-quarter tonnes mined, milled and copper and gold production outperforming the previous quarter.
The Manaila polymetallic mine, in Romania, delivered an “exceptional performance”, with ore mined increasing by 46% quarter-on-quarter to 40 462 t. Ore milled improved by 39% quarter-on-quarter to 39 135 t. Copper-in-concentrate production increased by 31% to 1 082 t, while the grade decreased by 2% to 17.9%.
The mine’s zinc production decreased by 25% quarter-on-quarter to 118 t and the grade increased by 6% to 42.3%.
At the Pickstone-Peerless mine, in Zimbabwe, ore mined and milled increased to the highest level since the June 2016 quarter, with 71 553 t mined and 68 431 t milled in the three months ended September.
The Pickstone-Peerless mine delivered a 17% quarter-on-quarter increase in gold output to 4 738 oz and a 3% increase in the milled gold grade to 2.41 g/t.
Vast reported that the mine’s production should improve considerably once the sulphide plant, which is currently under construction, was fully commissioned. The plant would increase installed primary milling capacity from about 22 800 t/m currently to 35 000 t/m. The mill grade would also improve from 2.31 g/t gold to between 3 g/t and 4 g/t over a six- to nine-month period, as higher-grade sulphide ore would be mined and processed.
The sulphide plant would be commissioned by the end of December.