The mine, partly owned by South Africa’s Petra Diamonds, attributed the good results for 2015 to “mainly due to the increase in run-of-mine (ROM) tonnes treated”.
The statement issued yesterday shows that the ROM, related to production from primary ore-body, throughput is planned at 3.8 metric tonnes (Mt) during in 2016, lower than previous guidance of 4.5 Mt.
The low ROM throughput is “due to downtime associated with plant modifications,” following a decision taken to carry out plant modifications to improve production and diamond liberation.
Petra Diamonds said further that this was a particularly relevant strategy at this lower grade operation and the modifications are planned to enable the mine to reach throughput of 5 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) by 2018 at a grade of ca. 7 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht), previously guided ca. 6 cpht.“Such an increase in ROM grade, partially offset by a finer diamond size population, is expected to yield a 7 – 10 per cent increase in revenue per tonne,” the statement said.
The plant enhancements will include the introduction of an additional crusher circuit and two autogenous mills, with construction commencing in next year. Also the commissioning of the crusher planned for next year as well while installation and commissioning of the two autogenous mills planned for first half of 2017.
The total capital expenditure (Capex) is guided at 20 million US dollars (some 40bn/-) for 2016. Meanwhile, Petra Diamonds said in total 2015 production went up 2.0 per cent to 3.2 million of carats (Mcts) compared to 3.1 Mcts in 2014, which are in line with company guidance.
The expectation for 2016 is to produce between 3.3 and 3.4 Mcts, an increase of 3.0 to 6.0 per cent on 2015 production. Petra Diamonds CEO Johan Dippenaar said the group remains firmly on track to meet its target of ca. 5 Mcts by 2019 as various expansion programmes are on track.
“Despite the challenging operating conditions being experienced by Petra in this transitionary period, we have recorded further growth in production to 3.2 million carats in 2015, which represents record production for the Group,” Mr Dippenaar said.
No comments :
Post a Comment