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Reefton mine produces 18,000 oz in qtr as plant exceeds design
10 June 2008, Source: OceanaGold and Lindsay Clark - OceanaGold’s gold mine at Reefton is performing above expectations producing 18,204 oz during the first quarter of 2008, the company says in its March quarter report.
The Reefton mine commissioned last year took six months to ramp up but throughput rates are now exceeding nameplate throughput capacity, the company says.
The mine’s average mill feed grade was 2.40 g/t during the quarter. The processing plant continues to improve quarter over quarter.
Run of mine recovery was 79.4%. A soda ash trial which commenced late in the quarter resulted in improvements to gold recovery and filter performance.
However the gold concentrate produced at the Reefton mine and railed and trucked to OceanaGold’s bigger Macraes plant, contains higher sulphur content than the Macraes ore.
OceanaGold said the Reefton concentrate reduced autoclave throughput at Macraes plant so a higher than usual percentage of feed was directly leached contributing to lower recoveries. The flotation process at Reefton is being modified to reduce the sulphur in the concentrate.