Malachite plans mobile processing plant for Lorena

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Malachite Resources
has entered into a heads of agreement (HoA) with Ore Processing Services (OPS) to establish and operate a mobile mineral processing plant at the company’s Lorena gold project, in north-west Queensland.

Malachite reported on Monday that OPS would be responsible for the supply, commissioning and operation of the mineral processing plant, which would be constructed as mobile units.

The Lorena project was expected to produce between 30 000 oz and 35 000 oz of gold in 18 months of production from an opencut operation.

Given the short life of the initial campaign from the opencut, the mobile plant provided flexibility to remain on site if more resources were identified, or to relocate the mobile processing capability to other regional opportunities or other projects within Australia.

OPS and Malachite would be working together to take advantage of these mobile processing units as part of a longer term strategy.

OPS and Malachite were currently reviewing another project in Queensland, which could potentially use the concentrator module once the Lorena opencut campaign had been completed.

OPS had completed a technical review of the project and carried out site inspections.

The nonbinding HoA was subject to a number of conditions precedent including completion of appropriate environmental approvals to allow a carbon-in-leach (CIL) plant on site and the completion of confirmatory design testwork on the CIL circuit.

Malachite was raising working capital for preparatory work to begin mining.

OPS, which was associated with contract engineering company ammjohn, would receive lease fees for provision of the mobile processing plant modules, a management fee in relation to the operation of the ore processing plant and earn a 30% equity interest in the Lorena gold project once operations began.