K92 mine had a good year despite pandemic, says CEO

THE Kainantu gold mine in East Highlands has had major accomplishments especially during this year despite the impacts of the Coronavirus (Covid-19), according to operator, K92 Mining Inc.
Chief executive officer and director John Lewins, said: “Despite this year being one of the most challenging years our company has faced due to the impact of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, it has also featured many accomplishments, setting the operation up for a very promising near and long-term.”
Lewins said on production, the processing plant achieved stage two expansion run-rate throughput in September averaging 1,100 tpd (technical product documentation).
“Importantly, the plant delivered a notably finer than required grind size and also set multiple daily records well in excess of the 1,100 tpd design.
“This has continued in October, with a new daily record of 1,538 tonnes processed on Oct 24.
“The strong performance of the process plant, resulted in the approval of a stage 2A expansion, which is expected to increase throughput a further 25 per cent to 500,000 tpa (tonnes per annum).”
He said commissioning was expected in the third quarter of 2022, with a low estimated plant expansion capital cost of US$2.5 million (about K8.57 million).
“The expansion is expected to provide a considerable boost to our ability to self-fund the stage three expansion.”
Lewins added that on exploration, the company was now at a major inflection point, where the vast majority of activities would be focused on resource growth, as infill drilling was complete at Kora for its resource update later this year.
“The resource update due in the fourth quarter will underpin the stage three expansion definitive feasibility study in the first half of 2022.”
He said a majority of underground drill rigs had now commenced drilling at Judd, and they planned to increase this further.
“On surface, drilling for the first time is underway at Kora South, significantly increasing our ability to step-out along strike,” he said.
“And, drilling at Blue Lake is also progressing and with the backlog of holes to assay and core-log at Kora and Judd almost complete, we expect to provide an update in the near future.”