Excelsior and Norton agree on grades

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miners Excelsior Gold and Norton Gold Fields have struck an agreement on suitable grade determinations to resolve long-standing delays in finalising ore batch payments at the Paddington mill, in Western Australia.

Excelsior has been delivering ore batches from its Kalgoorlie North project to Norton’s Paddington mill since December last year, under a long-term ore treatment agreement.

Under this agreement, a minimum of 500 000 t/y of Excelsior’s ore would be treated at the Paddington mill, over the next five years.

Excelsior currently receives part payment for the provisional gold content of each batch of ore delivered, and a second tranche payment was due once final gold grade and recovery data was received, and recoverable gold determined.

The initial implementation of this determination and sampling procedure delivered inconsistent results, and Excelsior said on Monday that the interrogation of the laboratory processes had severely impacted the delivery time of results and the ability of the companies to finalise the second tranche payments.

The companies have worked closely to resolve the procedural issues with improvements to the sampling plant operation, auditing of the laboratory processes and modifications to the complex metallurgical testing programme.

The two companies were now finalising the initial batches treated, and have accelerated the analysis of later batches, which were delayed while the laboratory audit and test procedures were being modified.

It was expected that the new grade and recovery determination procedure would provide more consistent results and improve turnaround times.

To date, Excelsior has delivered 12 batches of ore to the Paddington mill, containing some 160 150 t of ore, grading 1.97 g/t gold for 9 570 oz of recovered ounces.