President to Commission Two Major Mining Projects Next Week
President Emmerson Mnangagwa will next week officially commission the Pickstone Peerless Mine’s underground operations and Kamativi Mining Company (KMC) phase 1 processing plant.
Rudairo Mapuranga
The projects are projected to contribute significantly towards achieving the vision for the country to attain an upper middle-income economy by 2030.
President Mnangagwa will commission the Pickstone Peerless Underground project on Wednesday, 10 April 2024, and then move to commission the KMC phase processing plant on Friday, 12 April 2024.
Pickstone Project
To increase its gold output, Dallaglio Investment-owned mine, Pickstone Peerless Mine has transitioned from open-pit mining to underground mining where there are improved grades.
Pickstone Peerless indicative underground grades range between 3 to 5 grams per tonne, while the open-pit grades stand at an average of 1.8 grams per tonne. This will be an improvement in grades.
Due to the opening of the underground project, production at the mine has increased significantly with the mine together with Eureka Mine in Guruve producing a combined 210 kgs per month with a focus to increase to 230 kgs per month next year and eventually 250 kgs in 2025.
The mine, which currently averages 70 per cent gold recoveries, is looking to manage that through building three big CIL tanks to get maximum gold.
Pickstone will run as a hybrid mine up to June of 2024 and is building a new tailing facility to avoid a hazard on the current one, which is now about 25 meters. The expansion of the tailing facility has been approved by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA).
KMC Phase 1 Processing Plant
KMC has completed its first-phase processing plant and is constructing a second-phase processing plant. The first-phase processing plant will handle 300,000 tonnes and produce 50,000 tonnes of concentrate, with the second phase expected to handle 2.3 tonnes and produce 300,000 tonnes per annum. The company is looking to produce 350,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate next year.