LSE-listed Kavango Resources has started construction of a 50 t/d carbon in pulp (CIP) gold processing test plant at the Bill's Luck gold mine at the Hillside gold project in Zimbabwe.

Further to the recent discovery of new gold reefs, Mining Weekly reported on June 26 that Kavango's geology and mining teams now expect that the Bill's Luck gold system is much larger than originally thought. Since the company is already mining at Bill's Luck, it is now focused on growing production capacity at Hillside collectively in the short term.

The Bill's Luck CIP test plant is expected to boost Kavango's overall gold production within three months and be cash flow positive shortly after successful commissioning, when steady state nameplate throughput has been reliably achieved.

Kavango intends to feed the CIP test plant solely with ore produced from the Main shaft at Bill's Luck, mined by Kavango's mining team. Current mining at Main shaft delivers about 30 t/d of ore.

The current available processing capacity at Kavango's milling centre at Hillside, which includes three stamp mills and 12 in-ground VAT leach tanks, is fully consumed by the volume of ore production from local contract miners.

There is currently an 820 t ore stockpile at the Main shaft produced by Kavango's mining team, with a weighted average gold grade of 2.55 g/t, that is unable to be processed owing to capacity constraints.

The processing capacity at the existing Hillside facility will also be increased in the milling circuit with the planned installation of a roller mill, which will increase the milling capacity from 30 t/d to 60 t/d.

Construction of the CIP test plant will include a 3 t/h crushing circuit, two 2 t/h ball mills, ten CIP leach tanks of 0.5 m³ capacity each, plus a 10-ha tailings storage facility.

Additionally, the Main shaft's hoisting system is scheduled to be upgraded with a new 5 t/h head gear and hoisting system, rails and coco pans. This will enable the increase in daily ore production to 70 t/d.

Kavango forecasted that a 3 500 t ore stockpile will be available for processing in the new 50 t/d plant at the time of commissioning.

Work has started on re-equipping the Roscor shaft, which is located about 100 m to the East of the Main sShaft along strike at Bill's Luck. The existing 2 t/h headgear and hoisting system currently at the Main shaft will be transferred to the Roscor shaft.

“Our primary objective over the next 12 months is to build a 200 t/d gold processing plant at one of Kavango's projects. While we still have to decide which of our three main projects we will place that plant at, it is clear that a test plant at Bill's Luck can provide a more immediate impact for the company,” Kavango GM Everjoy Ngomamiti said.

He added that he was confident that, with a few slight improvements to mine infrastructure, the Kavango mining team could comfortably start mining more than 50 t/d of ore within the coming months.

"In parallel to this, the 50 t/d test plant will give our production team the opportunity to work on a more ambitious capital project. This will be valuable experience in preparation for installing the 200 t/d plant early next year,” Ngomamiti said.

So far, sterilisation drilling has been completed and Kavango has identified a suitable site to locate the CIP test plant.