Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mineral sands miner Base Resources has ramped up production at its Kwale mineral sands project, in Kenya, to 141 753 t during the three months to June, after project commissioning was completed in the March quarter.
In the March quarter, Kwale delivered 113 196 t of heavy mineral concentrate.
Ilmenite production during the quarter under review reached 91 620 t, while rutile production was recorded at 15 221 t and zircon production at 4 130 t.
During the quarter, ilmenite production reached design capacity and was exceeding expectations, while zircon production was consistent with the planned 12-month ramp-up to design capacity.
Rutile production ramp-up has been hampered by wet gravity circuit losses, Base said, which were expected to be largely resolved during the next quarter.
Base told shareholders on Friday that the company’s focus during the past quarter had been on debottlenecking the Kwale operation and on metallurgical optimisation of the mineral separation plant circuits towards achieving design throughput, recoveries, availability and run-time.
With significant success now achieved in terms of run-time and throughput, the company would now shift its focus to the progressive improvement in recoveries.
The Kwale project shipped its first rutile and zircon product in April this year, through the Mombasa port.
During the quarter under review, 91 259 t of ilmenite was sold, along with 14 005 to of rutile and 2 704 t of zircon.