TGB...Taseko Announces Procurement Details for Gibraltar Concentrator Upgrade
Thursday May 4, 9:15 am ET
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(MARKET WIRE)--May 4, 2006 -- Taseko Mines Limited (TSX VENTURE:TKO.V - News)(AMEX:TGB - News) announces further details of procurement for the upgrade and expansion of the concentrator facility at the Gibraltar Mine, located near the City of Williams Lake in south-central British Columbia. The mine is operated under an agreement between Taseko's wholly owned subsidiary, Gibraltar Mines Ltd., and Ledcor CMI Ltd. This upgrade and expansion project will increase the production capacity of the Gibraltar mine from 70 million pounds to 100 million pounds of copper per year by 2008.
Taseko has entered into an agreement with Farnell-Thompson, a Montreal based engineering firm, specializing in grinding mill design and engineering for direct sourcing of the new Semi Autogenous Grinding (SAG) mill for Gibraltar. Direct sourcing reduces the timeline for mill design, engineering and delivery of the mill components. Farnell-Thompson has been active in the global market for SAG Mill sourcing for over the last fifteen years, and recently provided similar services to Newmont Gold Company for the supply of grinding mills for their Phoenix project in Northern Nevada. It is expected that the SAG mill will be delivered in fifteen months.
In conjunction with this work, Taseko has also engaged the Vancouver office of Hatch Ltd. to provide overall engineering and procurement services for the upgrade of the concentrator.
The Company's $62 million dollar concentrator project, announced in late March, encompasses expansion of the concentrator's grinding circuit by incorporating a SAG mill to improve the efficiency of the present milling and crushing system and a complete replacement of the flotation recovery system. It is expected that the expanded milling capacity and upgraded flotation system will decrease Gibraltar's unit operating costs by approximately 10%, while increasing the copper recovery from 81% to 88%.
For further details on Taseko Mines Limited, please contact Investor Services at (604)684-6365 or within North America at 1-800-667-2114.
The information posted by 2morrowsGains is opinion only and should not to be taken as investment advice.
