Crater Gold Mining’s upgraded gold mining plant has been transported to the HGZ Gold Mine project site in Papua New Guinea’s Eastern Highlands Province with commissioning to commence immediately.
The upgraded gold mining plant includes two new hammer mills, two high speed centrifugal concentrators, gravity shaking tables and a new compressor.
The incorporation of the upgraded gold mining plant, will result in higher gold mining production. The new centrifugal concentrators and shaking tables will also provide better gold recovery when compared to the existing testing plant.
Full mining capacity is anticipated during the June quarter as the mining plant upgrade is fully commissioned.
Crater Gold’s PNG manager Richard Johnson said, “The company is excited by the upcoming phase, during which we anticipate an acceleration of our process of transition from gold developer to profitable gold producer.
“The objective of Crater Gold is ongoing cash flow to establish the company as a profitable gold producer. When we reach gold mining plant capacity, we anticipate producing some 10,000 ounces of gold in the first full year of production, at an all-in cash cost of below $400 per ounce average over the mining lease term. The HGZ project is a high margin operation.”
He said in addition to mining the HGZ, the company’s recent discovery at the South Artisan Workings (SAW) Zone also represented the potential for additional mineralisation in close proximity to the HGZ gold mine and a potentially longer mine life operation.
While the current focus remains on the HGZ mine, there remains potential to increase the current JORC compliant resource of 24 million tonnes @ 1.0 grams/tonne gold for 790,000 ounces at the nearby Mixing Zone project at Crater Mountain.
Crater Mountain is 50km southwest of Goroka. Formerly a tier-1 BHP asset, there has been in excess of 14,500 metres of diamond drilling to date, the majority focused on the Nevera prospect, which hosts the HGZ mine.
