Aussie gold mine now aiming for September start

Troy Resources Limited of Perth, Australia yesterday announced a likely September start of its Karouni Gold project in Region Seven.

The Gold Room & Laboratory (Troy photo)
The Gold Room & Laboratory (Troy photo)

The medium scale mine was originally expected to get underway last month.

A release yesterday from the company said that the past month has been an extremely busy period at Karouni as the construction team of over 500 employees and contractors worked through heavy rainfall to get the plant as far as possible to completion.

“Inevitably, under these conditions, there have been some difficulties that the team has had to address, including the Mill installation in particular, as well as delays experienced in clearing goods and containers held at the port”, the company said.

Whilst the situation has improved, Troy said that it is currently waiting on the last few containers and pallets of equipment and reagents held at the wharf to be cleared.

It said that at the end of June, the only major items that were still under construction were the Mill and the Thickener, with all the other major components and site facilities ready for power connection and commissioning.

It added that mining activities are on schedule. Troy said that with the prospect of better weather on the horizon, the target now is to start wet commissioning in early September. The first gold pour is now expected to occur 3 to 4 weeks after the start of wet commissioning.

The Company says it is in the process of awarding the contract for Air-core and RC drilling to enable exploration activities to commence at its priority targets. A further update on this will be provided in due course.

All generators have been mechanically commissioned and connected to transformers and the switch room, Troy said.

Construction of the formwork foundation for the Mill began in April and assembly of the component parts on the pedestals started in June.

“During the latter stages of assembly, a number of significant issues with the bearing shells, lubrication system and alignment of the Mill were identified. In order to address these issues, which could have impacted on the ongoing performance of the Mill, site management engaged a specialist installation team from Outotec, the manufacturer of the Mill. This team is currently on site and working to resolve the specified issues in order to ensure that all tolerances and design specifications are met, before the Mill is put into operation”, Troy said.

It is estimated that this additional work will take up to 5 weeks to complete.

It added that while the recent difficulties with the Mill installation and delays in clearing goods through Port Georgetown are disappointing, the fact that the construction project has been conducted with very few serious health and safety incidents is a noteworthy achievement.

Earlier this year, the firm’s Executive Director – Project Development Ken Nilsson had told Stabroek News that the company was accelerating preparations to start producing and selling gold by July. “The actual sale of gold is likely to start sometime in July with buildup of internal stock starting sometime in June, all contingent on the weather and the timely release of imported goods,” he had said.

Troy has proposed a medium-scale gold mine designed to produce up to 110,000 ounces of gold per annum based on an average overall recovery of 92% at the Black Water Creek, Kaburi Area, in Region Seven. The mine will be focused on the recovery of ore for processing from Smarts and Hicks gold deposits. The project components include an open cut mine, processing plant, tailings storage facility, mine site accommodation and additional infrastructure required to recover and to process ore for the recovery of gold.