Source: www.miningnews.net
Tanami's Coyote slowly getting back on its feet
Friday, 1 December 2006
THE problems at Tanami Gold's Coyote gold mine are slowly but surely alleviating, as the treatment plant's commissioning showed signs of improvement with a few more hurdles to go.
Tanami said the commissioning progress last month saw the highest weekly mill throughput and mill availability to date at 7015 dry tonnes and 90.9% respectively, which equated to around 75% of the designed weekly throughput.
Additionally the recovery of gold through the gravity and carbon in leach circuits has improved with Tanami reporting a gold pour of 600 ounces of fine gold this week. However the pour remains below design specifications.
A review of the plant and process design indicate the problems lie within the vat leach circuit, and the company has hired Como Engineers to "cost the conversion of the treatment plant to a full carbon in leach plant which will remove the gold recovery problems experienced to date".
Tanami said that following the completion of the current reviews of the plant, resources/reserves, the mine design/optimisation and modifications to the plant, mining will re-start and aim to achieve full production levels as soon as possible in the new year.
"[Reviews] are expected to be completed by late December 2006/early 2007 at which time the required plant modifications, costings and timetable will be determined," Tanami said.
"In the meantime, the plant will continue to be operated with minor modifications being made to improve throughput rates and gold recovery."
Coyote is forecast to produce some 70,000 ounces of gold annually but has sustained production issues since coming online earlier this year. The company has twice had to return to the market to raise working capital.
Coyote has 572,000oz of JORC-compliant resources and 272,000oz of reserves.
Shares in Tanami closed unchanged at 14.5c today.
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