PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Africa-focused gold miner Resolute Mining on Friday reported that the sulphide roaster at the Syama gold mine, in Mali, has been successfully brought back online, and is operating at nameplate capacity.

Resolute in October took the roaster off line after a crack was detected in the main external shell.

Repairs to the roaster were completed in early December, within the scheduled timeline and within budget, with first concentrate introduced to the roaster on December 19.

The gold miner told shareholders that in addition to the restart of roaster operations, a new secondary cone crusher has also been commissioned, while the extensive refurbishments and enhancements to the sulphide grinding, flotation and calcine regrind circuits have also been commissioned.

The improvements made at the sulphide processing circuit would ensure target recoveries and throughput rates are achieved in 2020 and beyond.

“The roaster repairs and associated unscheduled sulphide circuit maintenance has been a complex project which has been successfully completed efficiently and safely,” said Resolute MD and CEO John Welborn.

“The Syama sulphide circuit is now fully operational and ready to demonstrate our ambitions at Syama by delivering strong stable recoveries from consistent ore feed from the Syama underground mine.

“The significant ore stockpiles we now have available will allow us to focus on cost efficiencies with our autonomous underground mine systems rather than requiring to focus on maximizing mined and hauled tonnage. During 2020, we intend to investigate opportunities to expand both the underground mine production capacity, and processing capacity of the sulphide circuit, beyond the current nameplate of 2.4-million tonnes a year.”

Welborn noted that the crack to the roaster, and the subsequent unscheduled downtime, has resulted in a material loss in production from Syama during the December quarter, however, he noted that Resolute has worked hard to offset this loss from other production sources and to complete the repairs as quickly as possible.

“As a result, the material loss in sulphide production is likely to have only a miner impact on overall group production and targeted 2019 production guidance at 400 000 oz of gold. The lost production in 2019 is more than offset by the additional production we now expect to gain in 2020 by the deferral of the next major roaster shutdown to early 2021,” he added.