Discharge end of the SAG mill showing trommel screen (under its cover).
Canada-based Kinross Gold has resumed mining activities and construction work at the expansion of its Tasiast mine, in Mauritania, but milling activities continue to be suspended following last week’s fire.
Early estimates indicate that the SAG mill would only restart by year-end, at a cost of up to $50-million, the gold miner reported on Monday.
As a result, Kinross had lowered its 2021 production guidance to 2.1-million gold-equivalent ounces, from 2.4-million previously disclosed. The 2022 and 2023 guidance of about 2.7-million to 2.9-million gold-equivalent ounces remained unchanged.
Based on the initial estimate of the mill’s downtime and with ongoing work on the 24k project, Tasiast’s throughput capacity is now expected to reach 21 000 t/d during the first quarter of 2022, compared with the previous estimate of year-end 2021. Throughput capacity is expected to increase to 24 000 t/d by mid-2023, which is unchanged from the original 24k project estimate.
“Although this unfortunate incident is expected to impact our annual production guidance, our financial position and longer-term outlook remain very strong,” said president and CEO Paul Rollinson.
Investigations into the cause of the incident remained under way, however, initial findings found that the fire began at about 23:00 on June 15 at the trommel screen of the SAG mill. At the time, the SAG mill was shut down and was undergoing scheduled maintenance, including welding.
The fire was mainly limited to the discharge area of the SAG mill, which Rollinson said was owing to the quick response of the site team.
Kinross stated that it did not anticipate the fire to affect Tasiast’s life-of-mine production and mineral reserve estimates, or have a material impact on the mine’s overall value.