Acacia to maintain FY guidance despite Bulyanhulu plant challenges

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Acacia Mining’s share price on the LSE fell by 7.36% in early morning trade on Friday, after the company revealed it was having technical difficulties with the Bulyanhulu process plant following a maintenance shutdown.

During the third quarter, Acacia had undertaken a planned two-week shutdown of the vertical shaft at Bulyanhulu to refurbish and modernise the production and service winders.

At the same time, it undertook a programme of works on the process plant.

Although the planned maintenance was concluded successfully, Acacia has not been able to run the plant consistently since the shutdown as a result of repeated overheating of the ball mill trunnion bearing.

A team of specialists is working with personnel on site to establish the root cause of the problem and a timeline for resuming normal operations.

Acacia has built a surface stockpile of 11 300 oz during the shutdown, while there is a further 7 400 oz in stockpiles underground.

Stoping operations have been put on hold until the plant is running and providing consistent paste fill.

The treatment of reclaimed tailings will continue, as will underground development and drilling activities.

Acacia does not expect the challenges with the plant to impact on the company’s or Bulyanhulu’s production guidance for the full year.