Williamson Mine, in
Mwadui Shinyanga, said yesterday the diamonds production increased by 471 per
cent in nine months to March this year, thanks to the commissioning of the
rebuilt treatment plat.
The production, according
to Petra Diamonds that owned 75 per cent stake, has gone up from 21,570 carats
in nine months ended March 2012 to 123,243 recorded in the same period in this
year.
The
firm statement said the mine’s run-of-time (ROM) production continued as
planned, where basing on tonnages treated it has improved significantly to
remain in line with projections.
“At
Williamson, ROM production continued as planned,” the statement said attributing
it to “commissioning of the rebuilt treatment plant, with ROM tonnages
(increase) significantly.”
William
produces 5.6 carats per hundred tonnes (cpht), which remains in line with
guidance of 5.5 cpht backed by commissioning of the rebuilt treatment plant.
The
mine that undergoes extensive development to increase its capacity last year
saw its treated tonnes increased by 436 per cent from 423,131tonnes to 2,266,113
tonnes in the said nine-months.
On
quarter-to-quarter, which is the third for Petra, shows that Williamson mine produced
43,335 carats an increase of 128 per cent compared to 18,983 carats produced in
third quarter of 2012. Petra mine business calendar begins in July.
In
general Petra Diamonds third-quarter production was up 4.0 per cent to 647,248
carats, while for the nine months to March 31 it was up 20 per cent to 1.89
million carats.
The
company said it was on track to meet its full-year production target of 2.65
million carats. It produces 60 per cent of total diamonds sales in the world by
value.
However,
it said the rough diamond market continued the firmer trend experienced since
late last year. This translated to third-quarter revenue of 105.7 million US
dollars, up 8.0 per cent.
"As
usual, revenue will be weighted towards the full 2013 second half period due to
the seasonal timing of Petra's diamond sales…," Petra said in a statement.
Petra’s
current mine plan at Williamson is to ramp up ROM production from 2.5million tonnes
in FY 2013 to 3.6 million tonnes by FY 2016, following the introduction of a re-crush
system into the plant circuit.
The
mine’s Phase 2 expansion project, which was initially planned to take the mine
to 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), is currently on hold, though Petra
continues to consider approaches to further significantly increase production beyond
3.6mtpa.
“An
expansion plan above this level will be dependent upon appropriate electricity
and water supply, as well as the results recorded from treatment by the rebuilt
plant of main pit material over the medium term,” the firm website shows.
Petra’s
current mine plan has a life of 18 years, but given that the Mwadui kimberlite
hosts a major resource of 39.6mcts, there is potential to extend the life of
mine considerably.
Petra
has seven producing mines in South Africa – Finsch, Cullinan, Koffiefontein,
Kimberley Underground, Helam, Sedibeng and Star – and one in Tanzania – the
Williamson mine.
The
Group produced 2.2 million carats in its 2012 financial year and its core
objective is to steadily increase annual production to over 5.0 million carats
by FY 2019.
Source: Tanzania Exchange, reported from Dar es Salaam
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