PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Equipment failure has been detected at ASX-listed Aurelia Metals’ Peak gold and base metals project, in New South Wales, causing interruptions to the shaft operations.
The company on Monday said that an operational fault was detected when the haulage system tripped as a skip was positioned for loading. An inspection revealed that one of the two non-load bearing conveyance tail ropes had failed.
The failure was caused by the detachment of a decommissioned service pipe in the lowest section of the shaft, which fouled the tail rope.
Aurelia told shareholders that further inspection of the shaft has been conducted, with no other indication of haulage failure or shaft damage being found. During this inspection, a conveyance guide rope was detected with age related wear, and will also be changed to reduce future planned haulage maintenance task.
Replacement operations will be completed during the latter part of the week, and full shaft haulage operations are expected to resume thereafter.
Aurelia said on Monday that in the interim, additional trucking capacity has been put in place to haul ore to surface via the Peak decline, with supplementary copper ore to be trucked from the Jubilee deposit. Drawdown of surface ore stockpiles is also sustaining the mill feed, the company added.