Caledonia last Thursday installed an underground crushing station and automated shaft-bottom loading system at No. 4 Shaft Project at its Blanket Gold Mine.
This is a very important milestone in the development of the Blanket Mine which was designed and completed in-house and within budget, thanks to the excellent work by the management teams and staff at both Caledonia and Blanket.
I now look forward to Blanket achieving its target rate of production of 40 000 ounces of gold per annum before the end of the year, the firms president and chief executive officer Stefan Hayden said in a statement last week.
Hayden said the commissioning of the shaft-bottom loading system removes the need to multiple-handle ore prior to it being hauled to surface, with a resultant improvement in efficiency and reduction in costs.
However the Caledonia boss said reaching the production target would depend on the availability of electricity.
Electricity supply has been erratic in Zimbabwe over the last decade after regional companies either cut off or reduced supplies to Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Holdings) over unpaid debts.
Blanket has now commenced the ramp-up in production to a target rate of 1 000 tonnes per day which is expected to yield approximately 40 000 ounces of gold per annum. This ramp-up is planned to be completed by the end of December 2010, but gold production will remain subject to the availability of sufficient electrical power which is essential if the metallurgical plant is to process this volume of ore, Hayden said.
In order to overcome the problem of power interruptions Blanket intends to install three more 2,500 KVA diesel-powered standby generators before the end of the year which will allow all underground and surface operations to continue during interruptions of the electricity supply.
Post published in: News