Baita Plai cold commissioning gets under way

16th December 2019 By: Mariaan Webb - Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Baita Plai cold commissioning gets under way

Aim-listed mining company Vast Resources has started the cold commissioning of tis Baita Plai polymetallic mine, in Romania, with initial trail mining expected to be carried out shortly.

The current cold commissioning capacity is up to 7 000 t/m and will be progressively ramped up 14 000 t/m in January, following the arrival of new equipment from China.

Since the association licence for Baita Plai has been granted, the mine’s infrastructure required for the cold commissioning, including the electricity line, tailings pipe, crushers, floatation line and equipment, has either been upgraded, refurbished or has been replaced.

It has been a long road for Vast to bring Baita Plai – a 1.8-million-tonne copper/silver/zinc/lead/gold/tungsten/molybdenum orebody – into operation. Initially, there had been a delay in the issuance of a licence at the mine site, and secondly the operation had to be refinanced after Mercuria withdrew $5.5-million in financing for the project at the beginning of the year.

In October, Vast signed the documents for a $15-million finance facility with UK-based fund Atlas Capital Markets to fund its operations in Romania and Zimbabwe.