I just heard back from IR on Banro...
The quality of the ore at Namoya is not in question – it is ‘easy’ ore in metallurgy terms and grade is as expected. It is the excess volume of fine material at the top of the ore body which has proven to be the challenge right now. The operations team on the ground proceeded through the early commissioning phase, as they would for any mine at this stage, tweeking solutions, volumes and processes. During the early weeks, they felt they could make the necessary and conventional adjustments to these elements to accommodate the higher than anticipated volume of fines – this was part of the natural course of commissioning.
Just this week, the operations team determined the extent of the modifications that would need to be made to the wet circuit as the early ore fines content is beyond the capacity of some elements of the processing plant. While the adjustments will cause some delay in reaching peak production, the mine can continue to produce gold from the gravity circuit (which also recovers most of the gold from the fines) and the heap leach process, which is designed for the coarser material. The projected gold production is as outlined in the July 9 press release.
As mining continues into the orebody, the fines content will decrease as the ore becomes more competent. However, to reach the lower levels of the ore, mining must proceed through the upper levels, thus the upgrades and adjustments to some elements of the plant at this stage.
Regards,
Naomi Nemeth,
Vice President, Investor Relations
Banro Corp
E: nnemeth@banro.com
T: +1 416 366 9189, M: +1 416 903 0811 TF: +1 800 714 7938
www.banro.com
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