Modern Mining April 2022

MINING News

Caracal Gold provides update on new heap leach plant

to increase production to 24,000 oz pa at its Kilimapesa Gold Mining and Processing Operations. The heap leach process, with its opera tional efficiency gains and low operating costs, will enable Caracal to maximise the gold recovered from its Kilimapesa Gold Mining and Processing Operations. The first 5,000 tpm pad for the heap leach operation has been completed, loaded with ore and is being commis sioned. This first heap leach pad will act as a ‘pilot plant’, with the full heap leach plant operation to be expanded up to a capacity of 20,000 tpm. The metallurgical test work completed for the heap leach plant showed excellent gold recoveries, and the initial recoveries from the first 5,000 t processed on site were firmly in line with this. General manager of Kilimapesa Gold Mining and Processing, Riaan Lombard said: “The commissioning of this new facility enables us to treat the 40,000 t of low-grade material stockpiled over the ast few months and is another key mile stone in the major expansion programme current ly being implemented at our Kilimapesa Gold Mining and Processing Operations.”  will register and track bars, capturing the provenance and full transaction history. Over time, the plan is to encourage all major participants in the gold industry to adopt this technology, and add to the global ecosystem, so that all gold bars are registered and tracked across the entire supply journey from mine to vault, and ulti mately to end consumers such as jewellery manufacturers. This will effectively digitise the global supply chain of gold bars, the council said. 

East African gold producer, Caracal Gold recently advised that construction of its new heap leach plant is on schedule and

is expected to positively impact cash flow, in line with the company’s projections. This underscores the company’s commitment

Construction of Caracal Gold’s new heap leach plant is on schedule.

Gold Bar Integrity Programme launched

London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) and the World Gold Council (WGC) are col laborating to develop and implement an

international system of gold bar integrity, chain of custody and provenance. Over time, this will help consumers, investors and market participants to trust that their gold is genuine and has been responsibly and sustainably sourced, the council said. To del iver this industry-wide and ground-breaking development for the mar ket, LBMA and WGC have brought together representatives from the global gold sup ply chain to launch a pilot phase of the project. This initial phase will

Sibanye-Stillwater closes €5-million of equity investment in Keliber

In line with the investment agreement, the final tranche of Sibanye Stillwater (SSW) investment in Keliber was closed with SSW subscribing 125,000 shares for €5-million. This increases SSW’s shareholding to around 30%. It is SSW’s final tranche of the €30-million phased equity investment the companies announced on 23 February 2021. SSW subscribed shares for a total of €15-million in March 2021 and for an additional €10-million in September 2021. Keliber is a Finnish mining and battery chemi cal company that aims to start the sustainable production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide, utilising its own ore, in 2024. 

see two distributed ledger companies (aXedras and Peer Ledger) demonstrate how their technology can best deliver a global eco system that wi l l create an immutable record of a gold bar’s place of origin and chain of custody. This blockchain-backed ledger

WGC, LBMA and the WGC are collaborating to develop and implement an international system of gold bar integrity.

12  MODERN MINING  April 2022