JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Operations at Xtract Resources’ Chepica gold and copper mine, in Chile, are set to resume, following the completion of recommended work suggested by the country’s Inspector of Mines.
In December, the mine’s processing plant was closed after two fatal accidents occurred when an individual, training at the mine, entered a restricted area without the necessary safety equipment.
The shift supervisor attempted to rescue the individual but was also fatally injured.
The mine was subsequently visited by the Inspector of Works and certain additional recommendations were proposed, which would not have a material impact on operations at the mine and could be implemented in a relatively short timeframe.
The company expected the Inspector of Mines to grant final approval for the restart of the processing plant by no later than January 20.
Underground mining had already restarted on December 29 and blasting continued without interruption, with the ore mined stockpiled.
Xtract CEO Jan Nelson, who previously served as CEO at precious metals mining group Pan African Resources, noted that management, officials from the Chilean government and employees had worked closely in the last few weeks following the accidents at the mine.
“I am particularly encouraged with the progress we have made to date at our underground development. We are on reef in three ends at much higher grades than anticipated at the Colin prospect and considerable strike length for mining is available. The company also intends to report drilling results from our surface drilling programme before month-end,” he said.
Xtract also owned the Carolusberg and O'Kiep copper tailings dams, located 30 km from Springbok, in South Africa’s Northern Cape province.