Georgetown not affected by current flooding in Queensland
Heidelberg. Deutsche Rohstoff Australia Pty Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Deutsche Rohstoff AG, has started to process the high-grade gold ores from the open pit mines “Red Dam“ and “Electric Light“ at its Georgetown preparation plant.
Mining of gold ore started on October 7th 2010 at Red Dam. Initial mining at Red Dam is via an open pit , which has by now been extended to a length of 450 meters and a depth of 12 meters. Since October about 350.000 tonnes of material have been excavated and 15.000 tonnes of gold ore have been extracted (at an average grade of 14g/t). The gold ore is being crushed at the mine and then transported to the preparation plant, which is located 70km distant at Georgetown.
In early December open pit mining also commenced at Electric Light. The mine is located only 20km distant from Georgetown. The roads leading to the deposit are generally accessible during the rainy season. Therefore Deutsche Rohstoff Australia expects to be able to carry on mining at Electric Light during most of the rainy season. The aim of the first phase of mining is to produce approximately 20.000 tonnes at an average of 7 grams gold per tonne from Electric Light and 30.000 tons at 11 grams per ton from Red Dam.
While the Georgetown area hasn’t been directly affected by the recent flooding in Queensland, an early and exceptionally heavy wet season this year is expected to result in the postponement of further mining at Red Dam until April, with plant feed in the meantime being sourced from currently stockpiled material and Electric Light.
The preparation plant in Georgetown, which is fully owned by Deutsche Rohstoff Australia, has been refurbished in the period early July till December 2010. During this process all electrical equipment has been refurbished, an additional leach tank and water tanks have been installed, the complete carbon elution circuit has been replaced and a new Knelson Concentrator, which separates gold based on its particle density, has been added. The slimes from the preparation plant are being disposed into a completely new contained tailings dam.
The start of production which was originally planned in November was slightly delayed due to shortages in the supply of reagents and spare parts which could not be delivered from other parts of Australia within the promised timeframe.
From early December the preparation plant has been under commissioning. At first the different processing circuits were tested with water and afterwards by using low-grade ore sourced from stockpiles.
Since the beginning of this week high-grade ore from Red Dam and Electric Light is being processed in the plant. At the same time production has been shifted to 24-hour operation, with processing rates of approximately 12 tons an hour.
A forecast of gold production for the weeks ahead is currently still difficult to make since it will take some time until the plant has been optimized for the ore types that are being processed, Deutsche Rohstoff AG plans to publish a detailed report on the first three month of production at the end of the first quarter 2011.
On January 11th the official opening of the gold mine will take place in Georgetown. On Deutsche Rohstoff AG`s Facebook Page(http://www.facebook.com/pages/Deutsche-Rohstoff-AG/122709644409218?ref=ts) and its Youtube channel up to date pictures and film material of the Georgetown gold project and other projects can be viewed (http://www.youtube.com/user/DeutscheRohstoffAG).
Deutsche Rohstoff AG (Heidelberg, Germany), listed in the Entry Standard segment of Frankfurt Stock Exchange, is establishing a new primary producer. The company’s focus is placed on gold, oil/gas and so called high tech metals such as indium, gallium, rare earth metals, cobalt. All projects are located in countries marked by political stability, the core area being Germany. The business concept is based on redeveloping deposits which have been well explored in the past.. For more information please visit www.rohstoff.de.
Heidelberg, 7th January 2011
Contact:
Dr. Thomas Gutschlag
Deutsche Rohstoff AG
Friedrich-Ebert-Anlage 24, 69117 Heidelberg
Tel. (06221) 87 100-0
Fax (06221) 87 100-22
info@rohstoff.de
www.rohstoff.de
Horst Koppelstätter
Koppelstätter Kommunikation GmbH
Friedrichstraße 2, 76530 Baden-Baden
Tel. (07221) 97372 11
Fax (07221) 97372 22
hok@koppelstaetter-kommunikation.de