JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – LSE-listed Acacia Mining has resumed full operations at the Bulyanhulu process plant, in north-west Tanzania, after resolving technical difficulties following a routine maintenance shutdown, with full-year production guidance remaining unchanged.
The London-headquartered group reported difficulties in restarting and maintaining consistent operations of the plant in September as a result of repeated overheating of the ball mill trunnion bearing.
This had followed a programme of works on the process plant in parallel to a planned two-week shutdown of the vertical shaft at Bulyanhulu to refurbish and modernise the production and service winders, during the third quarter.
“Acacia is pleased to announce that it has resolved the previously disclosed issue of the overheating of the ball mill trunnion bearing at Bulyanhulu and the process plant is now operating at normal throughput levels,” the Tanzania-focused gold mining company said in an update to shareholders on Tuesday.
The issue, which was a result of flex in the trunnion footplate increasing pressure on the bearing, was resolved through the stabilisation and reinforcement of the base of the footplate.
Additional work will be undertaken during a fourth-quarter planned plant shutdown, with a full bearing housing replacement to be installed during 2017 to provide a life-of-mine solution.
“As a result of the resumption of stable operation of the process plant and delivery of paste fill, we have recommenced stoping in the underground mine,” Acacia added.
In addition to an unchanged production guidance for Bulyanhulu, the group expected output for the third quarter to be in line with the first quarter, with full-year group production maintained at 780 000 oz of gold.