Photo by: Duane Daws
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The successful commissioning of the elution and electrowinning circuit at the Tanzania-based New Luika gold mine has improved gold recoveries from 2% to 87.2%, London-listed Shanta Gold said on Tuesday.
The East Africa-focused gold production and exploration company noted a 40% improvement in silver recovery and a decrease in carbon use.
“As management better understand the process, in particular the handling of the much higher quantities of silver, further benefits in terms of recoveries and costs are anticipated,” Shanta CEO Mike Houston said in a statement.
Further, the new circuit would result in additional revenue of about $1.5-million and cost savings of about $8/oz during the second half of 2014.
“Together with the soon to be commissioned crushing circuit, this gives Shanta a robust operation that has the capacity to increase throughput substantially,” Houston said.
The construction of the new crushing circuit was progressing well, with commissioning expected in August. Cost savings through the removal of rented equipment were expected to amount to $20/oz.
Meanwhile, Shanta kicked off a drilling campaign to extend the life-of-mine at New Luika.
The drilling programme, which would comprise 1 500 m of reverse-circulation drilling and 1 420 m of diamond drilling, would be completed this month, with an updated resource statement to be released in the third quarter of 2014.
“The drilling is focused on upgrading additional resource from inferred to indicated at Bauhinia Creek and Luika. Some exploratory drilling will also be completed at the attractive Ilunga target to establish if this high-grade orebody is open at depth,” the company explained.