JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - TSX- and Aim-listed Aureus Mining on Tuesday said it had placed an order with NCP International for the supply, delivery and installation of a ball milling system at its New Liberty gold project, in Liberia.
This formed part of the company’s strategy to source the longer-lead key plant items for the New Liberty process plant in sufficient time to facilitate the successful achievement of first gold in December 2014.
The ball mill, which is due for delivery in May 2014, has a rating of 145 t/h and is capable of processing at a rate of up to 1.1-million tons a year of ore.
Aureus indicated that the civil foundations would have been completed by the time of delivery, ready for the erection and assembly of the mill and supporting equipment. The mill is a critical component in the commissioning process and pre-commissioning checks on the mill were scheduled to be carried out in October 2014.
The other key plant items that would be ordered in the second quarter of 2013 included the crushers, apron feeder, slurry pumps, spillage pumps, water pumps, carbon pumps, screens and the re-grind mill.
"We continue to make significant progress on the development and construction of New Liberty. The ordering of the ball mill is another critical step to ensure the timely and successful development of the project. The placing of the mill order is an exciting step for Aureus, as the mill is the heart of our new process plant.
"As a consequence of having all permits in place, key management personnel, an owner team assembled and project debt financing in place, Aureus continues to de-risk the project and is well-placed to achieve first gold by December 2014," president and CEO David Reading said.