Ruashi mine back in production

Johannesburg, South Africa — MININGREVIEW.COM — 09 June 2010 – South African-based and JSE-listed Metorex Limited “’ a mid-tier mining group well-known as a base metal operator in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) “’ has announced that the planned shutdown to carry out essential maintenance at its Ruashi mine in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) has been completed.

A statement issued here revealed that the shutdown, which was necessitated by a transformer electrical fault, had taken place in late May. The transformer fault had caused an internally generated voltage spike, which had tripped both rectifiers in the copper tank house.

Mining at Ruashi had continued unaffected during the six-day shutdown, which was completed last Friday. Full processing rates at the plant had now resumed, with the SX/EW plant tenors and electrowinning rates expected to reach the “desired levels” within six days.

With production curtailed to 70% of capacity, it had an impact on the company’s June quarter production, as well as for the month of June.

The plant was expected to produce about 1 800 t of copper and 200 t of cobalt in June, compared with the 2 357 t of copper and 300 t of cobalt produced in May. Production for the quarter was estimated at 7,257 tonnes while cobalt production was expected to be 762 tonnes.