Here is an article in the highly respected Foundry trade journal...

Here is an article in the highly respected Foundry trade journal and is a must read.

http://www.foundrymag.com/Classes/Article/ArticleDraw.aspx?CID=88253&Re


Here is one section of many, but probably worth writing about after my previous post.

"It had expected to reach full process capacity of 90,000 tons/year this year, though it did not start commercial operation until late summer and Smith now indicates that output target may not be reached until additional electrostatic separating equipment is installed, in February he indicated."

The original output profile was 70,000tpa, and they probably thought they could wringe the neck out of it and get 90,000tpa with the exisiting equipment and the very high grade. Obviously not the case and they need dry mill separators to get to the mark.

Also with feed grades running from the pit above 40%, it wouldn't surpise me if they were adding extra wet mill spirals, but that wasn't mentioned in the article (just my guess).

As for commissioning, this guarantee would have been for the original design of 70,000t. Any upgrade or additional equipment would need to be picked up by the company. However, if it is just separators, they are off-the-shelf equipment and they really are not expensive. Before people email me, it depends on how many, the size and also the cost to fit maybe $3m (but that's a guess), but you a getting a guaranteed 20,000tpa which would equate to a possible $10m in revenue per year for just the chromite, times that by a possible 30 year plus mine life and its well worth paying.

One good point about this plant, is at least management had the foresight to leave room within the dry mill for the increase in capacity. They have flagged they want to build an "in-the-field" first stage processing unit and the plant would definitely need additional separators for this.

Regards
Pep