Kinross Gold recently announced the third ball mill, recently installed at its Paracatu expansion plant in Minas Gerais, Brazil, has been successfully commissioned, on schedule and on budget. The ore feed rate is currently at approximately 60% and is expected to ramp up to 100% in the third quarter of 2011.
Start-up of the ball mill was incorporated into the company’s 2011 production forecast, which remains unchanged. Kinross’ South America Region remains on target to produce an expected 1 to 1.07 million gold equivalent oz in 2011.
The third ball mill is expected to enhance plant throughput at Paracatu as the mine encounters harder sections of the orebody. A fourth ball mill, which is expected to further enhance throughput as ore hardness increases in future years, remains on schedule to be operational in the first half of 2012.
