Mallee Resources (ASX: MYL) has unveiled significant progress has been achieved at its Avebury Nickel Project in Tasmania.
Highlights
Recruiting Drive
The company has been very successful in recruiting a top-line team to operate the Avebury mine. Over 150 permanent employees are now in place, with the mine staffed to commence operations immediately. A further 50 will be recruited as additional mining equipment arrives on site over the coming months.
The Avebury team is world-class and I have seen none better: they are loyal, friendly, professional and highly motivated to make our mine a success. Recruitment to-date is running in excess of 30% locals,” Managing Director John Lamb said.
Night Shift
Avebury has commenced 24/7 operations with the implementation of night shift in the mine. The processing plant will follow next week. The commencement of night shift followed a long period of preparation including training and familiarisation for workers, establishment of 24/7 site security and emergency services and a comprehensive risk assessment.
Stope Production
Loading and hauling of broken ore from stopes has now commenced, with the commissioning of new tele-remote loaders at Avebury. The Sandvik 517i loaders are equipped with a full guidance tele-remote system by RCT, in which the operator is located remotely in a hut, or on surface in an office, controlling the machine.
Production drilling of blastholes in stopes is underway, as is cemented rock-filling of primary stopes.
28,000 tonnes of ore is now located on the ROM stockpile, with a further 8,300 tonnes broken in stopes underground. T
he mine is focused on building ROM stocks ahead of commencing concentrate production next week. Plant Commissioning A major milestone was achieved on September 7th when the Avebury primary ball mill ran under load for the first time in over 13 years.
The mill was charged with balls and water, operating smoothly throughout the test. This completes the suite of major plant items to be tested, including crushers, screens and the regrind mill. The plant will now be fully commissioned on water in the coming days.
Completion of the dust extraction system for the crushing circuit is imminent, allowing ore to be crushed early next week and the fine ore bin to be filled. Thereafter, feed will be turned on to the plant and concentrate production will re-commence at the Avebury Nickel Mine.
“This is outstanding progress. In less than 6 months John and his team have transformed Avebury from a project on a 13-year care and maintenance programme to an operating mine site. We are seeing Australia’s next nickel sulphide mine emerge and full credit should be given to John and his team on site for their wonderful achievements,” Chairman Jeff Moore said.
Avebury has a full complement of Mine Rescue volunteers and is presently recruiting a second team to ensure full coverage at all times. The team trains in remote area rescue, rope rescue, confined space rescue, firefighting, first aid, hazmat, and road crash rescue. Recently the team completed underground live fire training, aimed at familiarising them with how fire behaves and how to control it in the underground setting. This was the first underground live fire training to be held in Tasmania in two decades.