Lotus hits 'terrific' milestone with Kayelekera mill restart
Perth-based Lotus Resources on Monday announced that it had restarted the mill at its Kayelekera uranium project in Malawi ahead of uranium production later this quarter.
The miner completed the refurbishment of the semi-autogenous grinding mill, loaded grinding media, and began hot commissioning of the crushing, grinding, pre-leach and leach areas. Commissioning is also under way in the downstream elution, precipitation, drying and packaging circuits, the company said in a statement.
“Following the completion of extensive mill refurbishment, alignment and grinding media loading, we have restarted the Kayelekera mill,” said Lotus MD Greg Bittar. “With the mill being such a critical aspect of the processing plant refurbishment, achieving its restart is a terrific milestone ahead of production at Kayelekera.”
The mill restart comes as Lotus wraps up an extensive programme of process plant upgrades at the mine, which previously produced uranium from 2009 to 2014 before being placed on care and maintenance amid weak market conditions. The company is now targeting first production of uranium oxide this quarter, in line with its earlier guidance.
Bittar said Lotus had also briefed the government of Malawi, including the Ministry of Mining, on restart plans and progress toward resuming operations.
“We are currently feeding mineralised waste through Kayelekera’s mill as we verify its performance before transitioning to feeding in ore,” Bittar said. “With first ore through the mill, the restart of production at Kayelekera is on track for this quarter.”
The company reported it had A$77.3-million in cash at the end of June and hasd not drawn any debt facilities, giving it a solid financial footing as it entered the final stages before production.
Kayelekera is fully permitted and was previously Malawi’s largest mine and only uranium producer.
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