Successful completion of Syama sulphide shutdown

RNS Number : 8680G

Resolute Mining Limited

01 April 2022

 

1 April 2022

Resolute Mining Limited

(Resolute or the Company)

Successful completion of Syama sulphide plant shutdown

Highlights

· Over 64,000 hours of shutdown activities completed by 210 employees and 447 contractors

· Completed safely with no recordable injuries

· Major shutdown activities undertaken on the crushing, milling and roasting circuits

· Upgrades made to crusher liners, transfer chutes, mill cyclone feed pumps, flotation tailings pumps, roaster feed systems as well as the roaster primary cyclone and ESP

· Total 'tool time' on schedule with handover to operations in line with plan

· Improvements implemented during the project are expected to extend the frequency of major Roaster shuts from three to up to ten years

· Syama gold production is on target for the March quarter

Resolute Mining Limited (Resolute or the Company) (ASX/LSE: RSG) is pleased to announce the successful and safe completion of the Syama sulphide plant shutdown.

The shutdown commenced on 18 February with the comminution circuits fully recommissioned by 20 March 2022, ahead of schedule.  Flotation concentrate has been stockpiled in advance of the Roaster re-start to provide immediate gold concentrate feed.  The full restart of the Roaster was delayed by three days to account for revised recommendations from the refractory suppliers resulting in a more conservative refractory installation and curing process.

First gold concentrate was fed to the Roaster on 31 March completing the restart of the entire sulphide processing circuit. 

The performance of the entire sulphide plant is now expected to be more consistent and manageable, as measured by the overall plant availability, leading to improved production outcomes.  Roaster capacity is also expected to increase which will effectively move the sulphide circuit 'bottleneck' from the Roaster to the Crusher.

Following a detailed review of the integrity of the Roaster, use of condition monitoring controls and the properties of the newly installed refractory it should be possible to extend the next major shut and refurbishment of the Roaster by up to seven years improving the production profile of the Syama sulphide project and Life-of-Mine fundamentals. 

Resolute's Chief Operating Officer, Mr Terry Holohan commented: "I would like to thank all of our employees and contractors within the Projects and Maintenance departments, as well as the support teams, who have contributed to the safe and successful completion of this significant $7.5m enhancement project.  From the early stages of planning, incorporating all the innovative design improvements and challenging logistics through to final delivery, the work performed reflects a highly competent and professional team. The team have successfully met all of our operational requirements while having to deal with a number of external factors, including COVID-19, unseasonal weather and political disruption to deliver a safe and high-quality project for Resolute."

"I believe that we now have all the tools in place to significantly extend the campaign life of the Roaster going forward.  The entire sulphide processing circuit has now had a long overdue refurbishment which supports delivery of Resolute's 2022 production targets, full tie-in of key improvement initiatives implemented in 2021 to provide a strong basis for further enhancements to the circuit."

Contact Information

Resolute James Virgo, GM Finance and Investor Relations [e-mail] [phone] Media  Cameron Morse, FTI Consulting [e-mail] [phone]

Public Relations Jos Simson, Tavistock [e-mail] [phone] Oliver Lamb, Tavistock [e-mail] [phone] Corporate Broker  Matthew Armitt, Berenberg Detlir Elezi, Berenberg [phone]

Authorised by Mr. Stuart Gale, Chief Executive Officer

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 which forms part of UK law pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service (RIS), this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

 

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