Production resumes at Sasa
5 October 2020
CENTRAL ASIA METALS PLC
('CAML' or the 'Company')
Production resumes at Sasa
Central Asia Metals plc (AIM: CAML) today announces an update following the 14 September 2020 leakage at its Sasa Tailings Storage Facility 4 ('TSF4').
Environmental update
Extensive planning for the river clean-up has been undertaken with the involvement of both Wardell Armstrong Limited and in-country consultants, and CAML expects to receive the official go-ahead to commence the clean-up work within a week. It is projected that the bulk of the tailings will be removed and disposed of in a secure and safe location on the Sasa mine site by the end of 2020. The clean-up of a high priority 350 metre section of the river has already been completed.
The environmental fine of €65,000 levied on Sasa has now been paid.
CAML continues to work closely with local community leaders and the authorities.
Production
As outlined in CAML's 28 September 2020 update, the physical repairs to TSF4 were completed during the previous weekend. All necessary engineering improvements to ensure the long-term safe storage of tailings have now also been completed.
The Sasa management team received approval from the North Macedonian authorities to once again operate TSF4 late on Friday 2 October and processing re-commenced that day. The Sasa plant will initially operate at a reduced rate of approximately 50% for a trial period while the technical team confirms the safe operation of the facility. This trial period is expected to be in the order of one week before the ramp up to full production.
In January, CAML gave 2020 Sasa ore production guidance of between 825,000 to 850,000 tonnes, resulting in zinc in concentrate of between 23,000 and 25,000 tonnes and lead in concentrate of between 30,000 and 32,000 tonnes. While 2020 ore mined is likely to remain within this guidance range, CAML now expects ore processed to be between 800,000 and 825,000 tonnes given the downtime from the incident. Despite this, both 2020 zinc and lead in concentrate production are expected to be within the original guidance.
Excluding production downtime, an early indication of the total cost of the TSF4 incident, comprising dam repairs and engineering improvements to the facility as well as environmental aspects, is expected to be below $1.5 million.
Further updates will be provided in due course.
Nigel Robinson, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"Today's news is very positive in that we have been able to make the necessary changes to TSF4 to ensure its long term safety and that the authorities, with whom we have worked closely and transparently in the weeks since the incident, have given us the go-ahead to re-start our operations. We very much appreciate the support we have received from these governing bodies in their speedy review and approval of the measures taken by CAML.
"We are cognisant of our environmental responsibilities to the local community and we will commence the clean-up of the entire river as soon as possible.
"Furthermore, we should still be able to meet our original 2020 guidance for zinc and lead in concentrate production. We will provide a further update on production from Sasa and Kounrad in the forthcoming Q3 2020 operations update, which we plan to release in the coming days."
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (EU) 596/2014
For further information contact:
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Central Asia Metals |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7898 9001 |
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Nigel Robinson, CEO |
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Gavin Ferrar, CFO |
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Louise Wrathall, Director of Corporate Relations |
louise.wrathall@centralasiametals.com |
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Peel Hunt (Nominated Advisor and Joint Broker) |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7418 8900 |
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Ross Allister |
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David McKeown |
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BMO Capital Markets (Joint Broker) |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236 1010 |
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Thomas Rider |
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Neil Elliot |
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Blytheweigh (PR Advisors) |
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7138 3204 |
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Tim Blythe |
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Megan Ray |
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Rachael Brooks |
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Note to editors:
Central Asia Metals, an AIM-listed UK company based in London, owns 100% of the Kounrad SX-EW copper project in central Kazakhstan and 100% of the Sasa zinc-lead mine in North Macedonia.
For further information, please visit: www.centralasiametals.com and https://twitter.com/CamlMetals
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