Kagara Zinc has announced that subject to finance and environmental approvals it will upgrade the Mt Garnet treatment facility from 90,000tpa of concentrate to 148,000tpa.
The zinc concentrate output will increase from 70,000tpa to 110-120,000tpa.
It is planned to complete the upgrade by December 2004 at a capital cost of $5m. The feed for the upgrade will be sourced initially from the Surveyor orebody and then from a combination of the Dry River South and Balcooma polymetallic deposits.
Current reserves and resources are sufficient to supply 10 years of feed at the expanded rate.
In addition to the polymetallic mineralisation at Balcooma there is also a significant supergene copper deposit.
As part of the upgrade the company plans to install a dedicated copper circuit at a cost of $2.5m, which will bring the total cost of the upgrade to $7.5m.
Capital cost estimates have been supplied by Minproc Engineering and are based on new equipment to an accuracy of ± 30%.
Metallurgical test work on this supergene material indicates a recovery of 90% can readily be achieved.
Once the upgrade is complete the Mt Garnet concentrator is expected to deliver the following concentrate tonnages: zinc 110-120,000tpa, lead 23-25,000tpa, copper 8-12,000tpa and supergene copper 12-15,000tpa.