WITH the delivery of its first ore feed into the Phu Kham copper-gold project in Laos, Pan Australian says it will complete project commissioning on budget and ahead of its original mid-2008 schedule.
The Brisbane-based company today said it would complete project commissioning ahead of time and within its $US241 million ($A264 million) stage one capital expenditure budget.
Phu Kham has a first phase capacity of 12 million tonnes per annum, producing 200,000 tonnes of concentrate containing 52,000t of copper, 47,000oz gold and 400,000oz silver.
The second phase will see operations at Phu Kham expand to 16Mtpa to produce 65,000tpa copper, 60,000oz gold and 550,000oz silver from 2010.
Over the weekend, PanAust began feeding ore into the process plant’s two 13MW mills using soft transitional ore, which does not need crushing.
More than 750,000t of the ore is stockpiled for processing, and the first year of mining will continue to use this partially oxidised ore.
The company said that in the first week of April the plant’s crusher would be commissioned and all process plant trials will be completed, allowing the company to ramp up production towards design levels.
An updated ore reserve estimate is due next month, and Pan Australian said it expects an increase in the copper grade to accompany near-term production targets and a revised life-of-mine estimate.
PNA Price at posting:
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