THE Newcrest Board has approved the Execution phase of the $61 million Lihir Front End Recovery Project.
The Lihir Front End Recovery Project primarily comprises the installation of flash flotation and additional cyclone capacity, as well as cyclone efficiency upgrades, to improve grinding classification and reduce gold losses through the flotation circuits. This is projected to result in:
- LOM gold recoveries increasing by 1.2%
- Incremental LOM gold production increasing by 244koz
- Estimated capital cost of $61 million
- Attractive project economics, with a projected:
o IRR of 32%
o Payback of 2.6 years
Newcrest Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sandeep Biswas said it is an exciting time at Newcrest as the company advances its growth pipeline.
“The Lihir Front End Recovery Project is expected to deliver additional production through an improvement in gold recoveries over the life of the mine. Lihir’s long reserve life makes this improvement in gold recoveries particularly valuable to our shareholders.”
Mr Biswas said he swas pleased that Newcrest is able to generate well paying jobs for people in Papua New Guinea over the next two years.
The Lihir Front End Recovery project is expected to generate direct employment of approximately 150 people at its peak.”
Mr Biswas further said the projects will demonstrate how the company is using innovation and its technical expertise to continually improve its operations.
“With a strong balance sheet, low cost production, a range of organic growth options and a strong exploration portfolio, Newcrest is well positioned for the future.”
The Lihir Front End Recovery Project aims to increase the overall Lihir processing plant gold recovery by improving grinding classification and reducing gold losses through the flotation circuits, through the installation of flash flotation and additional cyclone capacity on the High Grade Ore One (HGO1) circuit, as well as cyclone efficiency upgrades of the Flotation Grade Ore (FGO) circuit.
The flash flotation and cyclone upgrades target the following process improvements:
- Implement flash flotation to reduce mineral fines generated from overgrinding and send the higher- grade concentrate stream to the autoclaves
Improve cyclone efficiency to achieve a reduction in unliberated coarse mineral particles entering the cyclone overflow, which are not recovered in conventional flotation.
