LONDON, UK: Anglo Asian Mining Plc, the AIM listed gold, copper and silver producer focused in Azerbaijan, introduced the start of an expansion of its flotation plant, which will be doubled in capacity, and present additional operational flexibility.
The expansion forms a half of Anglo Asian’s increase in throughput capability to course of ore from new mines within the short and medium term. This will start with Zafar, which is because of commence manufacturing in H2 2023. It will support the Company’s ambition to become a mid-tier miner producing over 100,000 gold equal ounces per annum.
The total cost of the expansion has been estimated at $2.5 million, which will be paid from the Company’s existing money resources.
Reza Vaziri, Chief Executive Officer of Anglo Asian Mining, commented: “Anglo Asian is on the start of its subsequent phase of growth, as we put together to bring a variety of new mines into production. The development of our medium-term growth technique is well underway and we have to extend our processing capabilities to accommodate additional ore production.
“This expansion is an important step within the Company’s preparation for our new mines entering production. The mine design at Zafar is well superior and manufacturing will commence in H2 2023. This increase in manufacturing capability is a critical half in enabling Anglo Asian to obtain mid-tier manufacturing standing in due course.”
Details of the expansion of the flotation plant
Anglo Asian Mining flotation plant opened in 2015 to produce copper focus because the Company was mining ore with increasing quantities of copper. The flotation plant is found at its Gedabek site, subsequent to its agitation leaching plant. The plant currently contains six 50 cubic metre rougher/scavenger cells and twelve 5 cubic metre cleaner cells, a thickener and a filter press. The plant is fed ore crushed by a devoted SAG mill and ball mill combination.
Maelgwyn Mineral Services will present an additional three rougher/scavenger cells and 4 cleaner cells. They use “Imhoflot” pneumatic flotation technology, which requires much less energy and offers higher recoveries than conventional tank cells and flotation columns. The cost of the brand new cells together with instrumentation and spares is roughly $1 million.
One Imhoflot cell has been under test at Gedabek since April 2022 and it has produced excellent results. The additional flotation line will increase the flexibility of the plant and allow the manufacturing of an intermediate copper concentrate, adopted by a final zinc focus as a by-product.
The crushing circuit of the present agitation leaching plant will be used to present the extra crushing capability required for the expanded flotation plant.
Yon İç Ve Dış Ticaret Pazarlama Limited Şirketih (a Turkish contractor) will present a brand new thickener and filter press for the brand new flotation line at a cost of roughly $0.5 million. The solely additional equipment required to full the set up will be pumps, electrical panels and a few minor ancillary items. The constructing housing the existing flotation line will additionally require some modification, however no increase in size.