LONDON (Alliance News) - Aureus Mining Inc saw its London-listed shares rise early Monday after it said the first gold has been poured at the New Liberty gold project in the Republic of Liberia and the hot and cold commissioning stages of the plant at the project are progressing as scheduled.
The gold miner said there will now be a phased ramp up in the plant feed to full design throughput levels of 95,000 tonnes of ore per month, and it expects to achieve full scale steady-state commercial gold production during the third quarter of 2015.
All civil works and steel erection at the New Liberty plant site have now been completed, it added, and phase one of the Tailings Storage Facility penstock line has been completed which will provide sufficient storage for 18 months of operations. Work will resume on phase two after the wet season.
Aureus Mining shares were up 6.0% at 30.74 pence in London Monday morning. It is also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The New Liberty exploration license was acquired back in 1996, but the project was hampered by a shortage of funding and the Liberian civil war between 2000 and 2005. It will be the country's first gold mine, according to Aureus.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1
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