JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed Goldplat is making progress in finding alternative ways to process backlogged material, owing to the inability of a third-party refiner to process certain by-product material produced by subsidiary companies Goldplat Recovery Limited (GPL), in South Africa, and Gold Recovery Ghana (GRG).

The company stated on Wednesday that Rand Refinery had been unable to process certain by-product material for nearly a year, which had severely impacted Goldplat’s profit and cash flow for the past nine months.

“The [Goldplat] team have worked hard to find alternative ways to process backlogged material and mitigate the reliance on our third-party refiner Rand Refinery, including increasing elution capabilities at GPL and GRG, which will enable us to produce and sell gold bullion rather than relying on third parties for final processing,” said CEO Gerard Kisbey-Green.

The company was planning to clear the processing backlog by December.

It had entered into a contract with Germany-based firm Aurubis Refinery to process by-product material, while Rand Refinery had also started processing a small amount of certain categories of materials to assist in clearing the backlog.

Further, operational and engineering efficiencies had been introduced to the GPL elution plant, taking capacity to 3 t/d, compared with the previous 2 t/d. Elution capacity would be expanded to 8 t/d in October, when a 4 t column acquired from gold miner DRDGold was installed at the plant. Another 4 t column would be added at a later stage.

The columns formed part of an elution plant facility that was acquired from DRDGold and then deconstructed and moved to GPL’s premises, in Johannesburg.

A 4 t column would also be shipped to Ghana for installation at GRG.

Meanwhile, Goldplat had also made progress in securing new material for processing, a task that had been difficult while it was struggling to resolve its processing backlog.

GRG was now receiving new material from its existing clients, as well as from new sources.

Kisbey-Green pointed out that numerous other improvement initiatives, such as a new wash plant, new mill and tailings facility upgrades and extensions, besides others were progressing well.

“As a consequence of the steps we have taken and the initiatives we are implementing, I am confident with the outlook for all areas of our business and look forward to keeping the market updated on our progress going forward,” he said.