JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – West African gold producer Aureus Mining has successfully completed the first gold pour at its New Liberty gold project, in Liberia, moving the project into the advanced commissioning phase and rendering it on track to reach full-scale commercial production in the third quarter of the year.
“This is a significant milestone for New Liberty and is a culmination of a tremendous amount of hard work through what have often been difficult and adverse conditions.
“Aureus has taken New Liberty through feasibility, development and now into production as Liberia's first commercial gold mine,” Aureus CEO and president David Reading said in a statement on Monday.
He reported that the project’s hot and cold commissioning phases continued to progress as scheduled, adding that there would be a phased ramp-up in the plant feed to full design throughput levels of 95 000 t of ore a month.
All civil works and steel erection at the New Liberty plant site had now been completed, with Phase 1 of the tailings storage facility penstock line having been completed, which would provide sufficient storage for 18 months of operations.
Work would resume on Phase 2 after the wet season, Aureus stated.
New Liberty had an estimated proven and probable mineral reserve of 8.5-million tons, with 924 000 oz of gold grading 3.4 g/t and an eight-year mine life.
Production for the first six years was expected to average 119 000 oz/y.