The sulphide roaster at the Resolute Mining’s Syama gold mine in Mali (Syama), a key component of the sulphide processing circuit, is expected to be repaired and fully operational in approximately six weeks. The roaster was taken offline in early October due to the detection of a crack in the main external shell.
A detailed inspection of the main roaster chamber and structural assessment of the structural shell and related infrastructure has now been completed by Resolute’s technical team assisted by Outotec, the original designer of the Syama roaster. Outotec is a globally leading global developer and supplier of mineral processing solutions. The assessment has resulted in a detailed design methodology that identifies the scope and extent of the required repairs. An integrated project schedule has been developed which includes all aspects of the required repairs including design, engineering, manning, procurement, planning, and execution. The repair program is under way at Syama. The roaster is expected to be fully operational in early to mid-December.
The repair will require the construction of a platform to access the area and the removal of a limited amount of internal refractory insulation material. The schedule allows for the replacement of this material once external repairs have been completed and for independent QA/QC sign-off prior to a re-heating period and a return to full roaster service.
While the roaster repairs are continuing, Resolute is conducting a full structural and operational assessment of the roaster and all associated infrastructure and production handling systems. All planned maintenance work will be advanced where possible. This work will inform the existing plans for the normal biennial roaster shutdown scheduled during 2020 and is expected to enable a reduction to the planned number of days that the roaster will be offline for maintenance next year.
Mining activity at the new Syama underground mine is continuing during the roaster repair period. The ramp-up of mining is progressing well with production ore now being trucked to the surface using the company’s fully automated haulage fleet. This is a key commissioning milestone in the development of the world’s most advanced underground gold mine.
During the roaster repair period, mining activity will allow for the accumulation of ore stockpiles on the run-of-mine (ROM) pad with the expectation that up to 300,000 tons of ore will be readily available by the time the roaster is fully operational in December. The availability of such a significant ROM pad ore stockpile, in addition to available concentrate stocks, will ensure maximum through put operations are supported during the first quarter of 2020, according to the company.
Resolute estimates the total cost of the roaster repairs at US$5 million. This amount is expected to be offset by operational cost savings from not operating the roaster during the repair period.
The more important impact of the roaster downtime is lost gold production from the sulphide circuit. The Company intends to offset the lost production from the sulphide circuit by processing oxide material through the Syama sulphide circuit carbon in leach (CIL) infrastructure.
This plan entails processing historical stockpiled transitional ore mined from the Beta satellite open pit through the sulphide circuit mill and crusher and then bypassing the concentrator and roaster to feed this material directly into the sulphide circuit float tails leach circuit. This will allow additional gold production from the Syama sulphide circuit during the period when the roaster is offline. This additional production is expected to be further augmented by above budget performance from the Syama oxide circuit, the Ravenswood Gold Mine in Queensland, and Resolute’s new Mako Gold Mine in Senegal.
