tanami gold returns to mining green light...

Apologies if this article has been posted already!

Source: www.mineweb.net

JUNIOR MINING
MILL TEETHING PAINS OVER

Tanami Gold returns to mining green light
Tanami Gold, which operates a gold mine in the Western Australian section of the Tanami Desert now reckons its milling plant problems are behind it and it can now return to full scale production.

Author: Ross Louthean
Posted: Tuesday , 03 Apr 2007

PERTH -

The amber light was officially turned off for Tanami Gold NL today when the Perth-based company announced it would be resuming mining on its Coyote mine in the Tanami Desert.

Tanami Gold first launched mining on Coyote in May last year - the first gold mine in the West Australian sector of the Tanami -- but called a halt in August when it had serious problems with its gold plant and with mining dilution.

There was serious angst between the company and mine plant operator Bemex Corporation at this remote site and Bemex's services were terminated in December. A detailed review using the operations team and several consultants resulted in a conventional CIP section being installed and this, the company said today, was now achieving +90% recovery.

In the meantime there were discussions between Michael Kiernan of Monarch Resources and Tanami Gold's executive chairman Denis Waddell on some form of marriage, but Waddell told Mineweb today that both parties eventually agreed there was no easy fit and the companies should proceed separately.

A factor holding up the resumption of mining was the abnormally heavy wet season in northern Australia, and Waddell said that with the drying out there were now mining equipment moving up through the Northern Territory sector of the Tanami Desert, some of it coming from Alice Springs.

Some of the fleet is expected in a few weeks and then open pit mining would resume in full. When mining ceased the zones with significant dilution had been removed and the main open pit sector ore was exposed.

The plant can ramp up to an annualised 350-400,000 tonnes per annum and by year end should be achieving an annualised production of about 50,000 ounces. However, the operation will later this year go into decline mining on Coyote's higher grade zones and, though the throughput may reduce to 120-150,000 tpa the deeper ore grade of +12 g/t should see production lift to between 70-75,000 oz pa.

Waddell said a diamond drill rig will be applied to testing extensions of Coyote, particularly to the east and west, the Muttley Lode at Coyote, the nearby Buggsy and Gonzales lodes and other discoveries in the area. Near-term targets for open cut mining include the company's Sandpiper and Kookaburra deposits.

Tanami has proven to be the "stayer" in the WA Tanami, having originally explored with a partner whom it bought out and then acquiring the Coyote deposit from AngloGold Ashanti which felt it was a target below its corporate parameters.

The company has an enormous package of properties in the WA and NT Tanami and elsewhere in the Territory, with some prospects perceived as big gold, gold-copper and gold-platinum targets.

The company will be hoping for a smooth restart and a fairly rapid move into higher grade underground ore now it is confident the huge teething pains at the mill are over. The company's share price slipped from around $A1 in mid October last year and has now elevated off a nadir to having market sales today around the A13.5 cents range (US10.96¢).

The Intierra group's Minmet research database today put Tanami Gold's market capitalisation at $A83.45 M ($US67.78 M).


End.

Cheers, Pie