Pantoro to expand Nicolsons production with addition of openpit feed
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A proposed openpit mine some 1.5 km from the Nicolsons processing plant, in Western Australia, could deliver an additional 16 350 oz to the Nicolsons gold project production profile.
Owner Pantoro on Thursday reported that the evaluation of its Wagtail and Rowdles prospects defined an initial ore reserve of 46 000 oz, which was contained in three small high-grade openpits.
Pantoro said that mining of these pits would allow for more ore feed to the Nicolsons processing plant as development of the underground mine advanced to full capacity.
Reviews of the processing plant indicated that the crushing and grinding circuits have an existing capacity to process a throughput of 200 000 t/y, which would be an increase of 50% compared with the current operating level. Two additional leach tanks and some minor modification to the classification circuit would be required to achieve high gold recoveries at the expanded rate.
Pantoro had started detailed engineering design for these works, and was hoping to expand its production capacity by the end of 2016.
MD Paul Cmrlec said on Thursday that the addition of openpit feed to the Nicolsons mill would enable expanded production in the short to medium term.
“Our pre-commencement goal of 30 000 oz/y was based on a reserve grade of 6.17 g/t gold; however, results to date indicate that the operation has capacity to substantially exceed both throughput and grade targets. We are confident that additional mine life will be added through exploration and continued mining extensions and we believe we are just on the tip of the iceberg in terms of what the overall ore system has to offer.”
The Nicolsons operation poured its first gold in September last year, after operations were started in April.
In May, Pantoro took full ownership of the project after acquiring the remaining 20% interest in Nicolsons from joint venture partner Bulletin Resources.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation

















