[miningmx.com] — CANADIAN mining group Great Basin Gold announced on Thursday that the Burnstone Metallurgical Plant project, one of the final steps in the start-up of the Burnstone gold mine in South Africa, remained on track.
“Successful commissioning of the Semi-Autogenous Grinding (SAG) mill and Ball mill has taken place. The SAG and Ball mills’ commissioning went very
smoothly; they are controlled using medium voltage drives, which offer improved reliability through the use of high voltage insulate gate bipolar
transistors that are 99% efficient at full load and have a high dynamic response based on voltage source inverter technology. This is the first application of this technology in South Africa,” the group said.
Development muck has initially been run through the system during the test period to fill lockup areas.
Conveyors were run at low speed to assess if there were any problem areas. All mills and conveyors performed well.
A loading bin was added to the SAG mill conveyor. This part of the mill design provides additional flexibility, enabling material to be fed into the mills bypassing the silo. Crushing has been continuing with 3 000 tonnes processed.
The current focus is to commission the gravity circuit, which will be followed by the Carbon-in-Leach circuit. The first gold pour is expected before the end of October 2010.
Commissioning of the vertical shaft is progressing well with both conveyances tested and shaft signaling devices already in place. The shaft is scheduled to be inspected by the department of mineral resources on Thursday for final testing and licensing.
Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO, commented: “Good progress has been made in the Burnstone Metallurgical Plant. Commissioning of the two mills is a significant milestone, and attention has now shifted to the remaining metallurgical plant infrastructure.”
