Modern Mining July 2016

MINING News

Zinc flotation plant at Bisha completed on schedule DSO high grade gold equivalent stockpiles so as to augment cashflow during 2016.” The Bisha zinc expansion project will average over 100 000 tonnes of zinc and 20 000 tonnes of copper per year for the next nine years from mid-2016 and has excess capacity to absorb additional feed that might come from additional deposits without yet defined mineral reserves.

Nevsun, listed on the TSX and NYSE MKT, has announced the completion of the new zinc flotation plant at its 60 %-owned Bisha mine in Eritrea. The new zinc flotation plant adds to the existing copper flotation and Bisha will continue to produce both copper and zinc for the remaining current nine-year primary reserve life. The com- pany initiated ore commissioning of the combined plant on June 6, 2016. Nevsun CEO Cliff Davis commented, “We are again very pleased with how the zinc plant expansion has progressed, on time and under budget. We look forward to reaching commercial production before the end of Q3. In themeantime, we will con- tinue to accelerate the monetisation of the

quality boundary material ore. The commissioning process is antici- pated to take no more than three months to complete and will allow Nevsun to optimise the efficiency of the plant and maximise recoveries of copper and zinc. As the total tonnage of copper and zinc concentrate produced going forward is expected to be similar to total copper concentrate quantities in 2015, there is no need for additional transport or ship- ping infrastructure upgrades. The existing Rotainer trucking and loading system used to load, transport and unload con- centrate materials for shipping continues to operate safely, efficiently and in an envi- ronmentally sound manner. 

Construction of the zinc expansion proj- ect is now complete. The project included replacement of the copper regrind mills with a new, more efficient IsaMill™, identi- cal to the regrind mill in the zinc plant. Wet commissioning tests utilising air, water and slurry are now finished and Bisha has started hot commissioning using lower

The new zinc flotation plant at Bisha (photo: Nevsun).

16  MODERN MINING  July 2016