PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Element25 has reported new daily record production at its Butcherbird manganese project, in Western Australia, having restarted operations after logwasher repair and engineering modification works were completed in December.
The miner on Thursday said that the work undertaken during December had focused on the repair of the shaft failure, which was announced in November, and the implementation of a range of engineering improvements that had already been planned prior to the plant failure.
Plant production volumes have shown significant improvements since re-commissioning was done, with a new daily production record of 1 209 t achieved on January 3, well above the targeted nameplate production of 1 000 t/d for the Stage 1 production plant.
“The record daily production of 1 209 t achieved is equivalent to annualised production of over 400 000 t/y, which exceeds our 365 000 t/y nameplate capability. While it is premature to make firm forecasts on annual production volumes, it is highly encouraging to see this step-change in process plant performance after the implementation of the planned improvements,” said Element25 MD Justin Brown.