Perth, April 9, 2008 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Albidon's (ASX: ALB)(PINK: ABIDF) 100% owned Munali Nickel Project is located approximately 60 kilometres south of Zambia's capital city Lusaka. Site works commenced in September 2006 and construction of the project is now 95% complete with first concentrate production expected by the end of this month.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- The Board has approved an upgrade to the Munali concentrator to increase
nickel production from the project by 20%.
- Production from Munali will increase to 10,000 - 10,500 tonnes of nickel in
concentrate per annum.
- The concentrator capacity will be upgraded from 900,000 to 1,200,000 tpa, with
work to commence immediately.
- Capital costs for this upgrade are estimated at US$2.5million. The upgrade will
be funded from cash reserves.
Optimisation Study
The Company has completed a review of the Munali concentrator to assess the viability of increasing the mill throughput and therefore nickel production per annum.
The optimization study has concluded that the present concentrator can be upgraded from the existing nameplate capacity of 900,000tpa to 1.2mtpa with a capital investment of $US2.5m. It has been decided to commence this work immediately so the Company can take advantage of the construction personnel currently on site. It is expected that mill capacity will reach a rate of 1.2mtpa by January 2009.
Work involved will include upgrades to the flotation capacity, blowers for the flotation cells, mill feed system and modifications to the milling circuit.
The increase in the milling capacity will result in a 20% increase in the annualised production from the Project to approximately 10,000 to 10,500 tonnes of nickel in concentrate.
The concentrator upgrade will be funded from cash reserves available from the capital raising in December, 2007. This capital raising was designed to ensure the Company had sufficient funds to allow expansion work, scoping studies and additional drilling activities. Therefore no additional capital raising is required to fund this work. The Board has approved the upgrade subject to Senior Lender approval.
Munali Mining Progress
The Project commenced production of first ore from development in January 2008, several months ahead of schedule. The accelerated development has continued with delivery of a third two-boom jumbo in March. At the end of March there were some 25,000 tonnes of ore stockpiled on the Run of Mine (ROM) pad in readiness for start-up of the crushing and milling circuit.
Due to the continued rapid development of the mine there are now eight (8) ore drives being developed and delivering ore to the ROM pad.
Munali Construction Progress and Schedule
Construction of the Munali Project plant and associated infrastructure has also continued to press forward ahead of the previously advised schedule. In the crushing circuit "hot commissioning" commenced over the past weekend. This is the process whereby material is fed through the crushing circuit as a test of the various systems.
The milling, flotation, thickening and filtration circuits will be completed within a fortnight at which time their hot commissioning will also commence.
As a result of the rapid construction advance it is expected first concentrate will be produced before the end of April, some two months ahead of the original schedule.
Contact
Dale Rogers
Tel: +61 8 9211 4600
email nickd@albidon.com.
website at www.albidon.com
RFC Corporate Finance Ltd
Stephen Allen
Tel: +61 8 9480 2500
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