African Metals Corporation's Luisha South Project Commences Pre-Production of Malachite Concentrate
17 4월 2012 - 10:01PM
Marketwired Canada
African Metals Corporation (TSX VENTURE:AFR)(FRANKFURT:OWW) ("AFR") is pleased
to report completion of assembly of the Dense Media Separation (DMS) plant,
spirals bank and ancillary equipment (the DMS Plant) at the Luisha South
Project, DRC, and commissioning of the DMS plant with pre-production of
malachite concentrate.
AFR will now begin processing material from the Luisha South stockpile which
contains an inferred resource of 370,000 tonnes at 1.0% copper for 3,800 tonnes
of contained copper metal and 0.5% cobalt for 1,700 tonnes of cobalt metal
(using a 0.25% Cu cut-off - see the technical report of Geosure Exploration &
Mining Solutions Pty Ltd., an independent firm contracted by AFR to prepare the
technical report, filed on www.sedar.com on October 13, 2011.).
Approximately 3,500 tonnes of material from the Luisha South stockpile has been
moved onto the ROM pad, ready for treatment through the DMS plant. Initial plant
ore feed requirements are 790 tonnes per day.
Planning has allowed for a 4 to 6 week "pre-production" period, over which
production shall be ramped up from 22,000 tonnes per month to approximately
44,000 tonnes of material processed per month allowing for an 85% availability
of fleet operations. At that stage, AFR has targeted a monthly production of 780
tonnes of DMS concentrate and 1290 tonnes of Spirals concentrate.
Commissioning
Independent consultants and company personnel have completed all construction,
assembly and commissioning activities for the DMS Plant. The feed bin and
loading ramp, primary crusher, scrubber module, DMS module, spirals bank and
connecting conveyor belts have all been dry and wet tested and commissioned
ready for operations.
Electrical wiring and installation of pumps and slurry lines have also been
installed and tested. Excavation of water recycling ponds and installation of
plastic linings to these, have been completed, as well as excavation and
construction of the tailings dam. Construction of a ROM pad, high grade and low
grade ore stockpile areas, concentrate storage area and haulage tracks were also
completed.
Pre-Production
Pre-production trials commenced on the 9th April 2012. The results of initial
trial runs of ore material through the plant are summarised in Table 1.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DMS
DMS Spiral Gravel Slimes /
Ore Concentrate Concentrate Tails Tailings
Duration Feed Cu % Cu % Cu % Cu %
Date (hours) (tonnes) Avg. Avg. Avg. Avg.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/04/2012 1 10 2.1 6.4 2.0 1.1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/04/2012 0.5 4 19.5 6.4 0.7 -
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/04/2012 1 10 14.1 6.1 - -
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
12/04/2012 2 42 23.4 7.8 2.0 2.2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
13/04/2012 1 36 20.1 5.5 0.8 1.0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 1: DMS pre-production trials with ore feed averaging approximately
2.4% copper.
The results show a continued improvement in DMS concentrate grades after
adjustments to plant, density of the iron silicate slurry (the separating
medium), and incoming water pressures to regulate the water to ore ratio to
approximately 4:1. The plant operations team are maintaining the targeted grade
of +20% copper in concentrate.
The Spirals concentrate grades however are less than the targeted average grade
of 15% copper in concentrate. Hand "sieving" or washing of the spiral
concentrate increases the contained copper content to between 15% and 19%
copper, which is in line with projected target grades. Further adjustments to
the regulation of incoming water flow pressures are required, and further
adjustments to the angle of repose of the final concentrate washing screw and
engineering adjustments are needed to increase the final grade of copper in the
spirals concentrate.
Delays
On the 14th March 2012, AFR terminated the Management Agreement with M&J
Investments Sprl ("M&J") after the situation became untenable. The Agreement,
signed in September 2011, included payments to M&J for decommissioning,
transportation to the Luisha South Project and full commissioning of the DMS
plants, spirals bank, recycling ponds, accommodation camp and plant
infrastructure. Non-performance and non-achievement of goals as outlined in the
Agreement by M&J, led to the termination of the contract by AFR.
AFR had made parallel arrangements to engage technical and operational staff to
undertake the role of managing the processing plant in lieu of M&J.
Nigel Ferguson, CEO and President of African Metals Corp, commented:
"The Company is very pleased to report completion of the DMS plant construction
despite some wet season weather delays and non-performance issues by M&J which
have now been fully resolved. Commissioning and testing operations of the DMS
plant to produce the malachite concentrate at the Luisha South Project marks the
Company's transition from explorer to producer. The Company expects further fine
tuning of the plant to occur in the coming weeks as in increases activities to
reach full 24 hour production by mid-May 2012. AFR will report production
results accordingly in the coming weeks. The Company is now well positioned to
take advantage of over 5 years of experience in the mineral-rich Katanga
Province and the undeveloped opportunities that it holds."
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF AFRICAN METALS CORPORATION
Nigel Ferguson, President & CEO
To view photos associated with this press release, please visit the following
link: http://media3.marketwire.com/docs/782771_photos.pdf
This News Release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking
statements are statements that relate to future events. These statements are
only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity,
performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results,
levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these
forward-looking statements. While these forward-looking statements, and any
assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our
current judgment regarding the direction of our industry, actual results will
almost always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions,
projections, assumptions or other future performance suggested herein. Except as
required by applicable law, the Company does not intend to update any of the
forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results.
About African Metals Corporation.
African Metals Corporation (TSX VENTURE:AFR) is a Canadian listed company
focused on the discovery and development of Copper and Cobalt deposits in the
highly mineralized Katanga Copper Belt of the world renowned Africa Copper Belt
in the Democratic Republic of Congo ("DRC").
AFR purchased all the assets of Chevalier Resources Inc. in March 2010 including
a 57% interest in the Luisha South Project contained within licence PEPM 4881,
Katanga Provence, Democratic Republic of the Congo ("DRC") through subsidiaries
incorporated in the DRC. In July AFR negotiated a further 18% interest in the
project with the option to increase the equity interest to 90% based on results.
The project is located 75 kilometres northwest of Lubumbashi, the capital of
Katanga Province and consists of approximately 16.2km2.
The Luisha South Project includes a small historical open pit mine and
associated stockpile and is underlain by Roan Group sediments which host major
Cu-Co deposits in the DRC. The Luisha South ore body was explored between 1923
and 1928 and an oxide deposit with an estimated pre-production tonnage of
approximately 350,000 tonnes at 8.6% Cu was delineated (the resource estimate
non-compliant in terms of NI 43-101). The results of a 2,002 metre RC percussion
drilling program completed by Titan Drilling Sprl in June 2010 enabled the
estimation of a NI 43-101 compliant maiden Inferred Resource of 5.8 Million
tonnes at 1.3% Cu for 75,400 tonnes of contained copper metal and 0.4% Co for
23,200 tonnes of contained cobalt metal (using 0.5% Cu cut-off). See the
technical report of Geosure Exploration & Mining Solutions Pty Ltd, an
independent firm contracted by AFR to prepare the technical report, dated
November 15, 2010 and filed on www.sedar.com on December 2, 2010. Rubaco Sprl
and DrillTek Sprl further combined to complete a total of 1,538.73 metres of
diamond core drilling at the project in January 2011. The results of the
drilling program enabled a re-estimation of the resource to produce a NI 43-101
compliant Inferred Resource of 14.7 Million tonnes at 1.1% Cu for 161,700 tonnes
of contained copper metal and 0.3% Co for 44,100 tonnes of contained cobalt
metal (using a 0.5% Cu cut-off). The revised resource represented an increase of
114% and 90% respectively of the previous contained copper and cobalt metal
estimates. See the technical report of Geosure Exploration & Mining Solutions
Pty Ltd., an independent firm contracted by AFR to prepare the technical report,
dated October 10, 2011 and filed on www.sedar.com on October 17, 2011.
Nigel M. Ferguson, (MAIG, MAusIMM) President and Chief Executive Officer for the
Company and a qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has verified
the data disclosed in this release.
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