PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Resolute Mining on Friday announced that the sulphide roaster at its Syama gold mine, in Mali, would likely be repaired within the next six weeks, with the miner maintaining its full-year guidance for the 2019 financial year.

The roaster, which forms part of the sulphide processing circuit, was taken off line in October this year after a crack was detected in the main external shell.

Resolute told shareholders that a detailed inspection of the main roaster chamber and structural assessment of the structural shell and related infrastructure has now been completed, resulting in a detailed design methodology that identifies the scope and extent of the required repairs.

The repairs are expected to cost $5-million, with Resolute saying that operational cost savings from not operating the roaster during the repair period would offset the amount.

An integrated project schedule has been developed, which includes all aspects of the required repairs, and the repair programme is now under way at Syama. The roaster is expected to be fully operational by early to mid-December.

While the repairs are under way, Resolute will conduct a full structural and operational assessment of the roaster and all associated infrastructure and the production handling systems. The miner said that this work would inform the existing plans for a normal biennial roaster shutdown scheduled for 2020, and would enable a reduction to the planned downtime.

Meanwhile, mining activities at the Syama underground are continuing unaffected, allowing for the accumulation of stockpiled ore on the run-of-mine pad, with Resolute expecting up to 300 000 t of ore to be readily available by the time the roaster is fully operational.

The availability of the stockpiled ore would ensure maximum throughput operations are supported during the first quarter of 2020.

However, Resolute noted that the roaster downtime would likely result in lost gold production from the sulphide circuit. The miner is planning to offset this loss in production by processing oxide material through the sulphide circuit’s carbon-in-leach infrastructure, allowing additional gold production from the Syama sulphide circuit during the period that the roaster is off line.

This additional production will be further augmented by an above-budget performance at the oxide circuit, the Ravenswood gold mine, in Queensland, and the newly acquired Mako gold mine, in Senegal.

As a result, Resolute has maintained its full year production guidance of 400 000 oz for the 2019 financial year.