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(Alliance News) - AfriTin Mining Ltd said on Wednesday that the Uis tin mine will generate maiden tin concentrate by "early August", following the conclusion of the commissioning phase this week.
The plant, AfriTin said, consists of a four-stage crushing circuit and three-stage concentrating circuit.
Hot commissioning in the crushing circuit concluded in June and cold commissioning of the concentrating circuit was completed last Sunday. The last stage of the commissioning phase will feature hot commissioning of the concentrating circuit.
Following this, the company will scale-up the project to achieve the desired design capacity of 500,000 tonnes of ore per year, producing 60 tonnes of tin concentrate per month before the end of the fourth quarter of 2019.
AfriTin said it will also prepare to install a processing facility which will allow for three million tonnes of ore per year, producing 5,000 tonnes per annum of tin concentrate.
Chief Executive Anthony Viljoen said: "The successful commissioning of the concentrator officially concludes the construction phase of the project and moves the plant into phase one production, with first tin concentrate to be produced in the coming days. This marks a momentous milestone for the company and for the AfriTin team in particular, having delivered a pilot plant of this scale on a relatively modest budget, within two years of listing on AIM.
"We look forward to keeping the market abreast of developments as the plant ramps up to steady-state production, while at the same time, delivering on other key aspects of the project."
Shares in the company were flat at 3.35 pence each in London on Wednesday afternoon.
