Mwana Africa: production resumes at Freda Rebecca Gold Mine

AIM-listed Mwana Africa, the pan-African, multi-commodity resources company, has provided an operational update on its Freda Rebecca Gold Mine in Zimbabwe, following the previously reported Leach Tank failure in February.

The company, which is focused on the production, development and exploration of gold, nickel, copper and diamonds, said that in March a total of 50 thousand metric tonnes of ore was milled at a grade of 2.5 grammes per tonne achieving a recovery of 80.2%.

Normal production throughput recommenced as of April 1st using tanks one, four and five as leach tanks (rather than tanks one, two and three) with eight absorption tanks, to ensure that minimum leach times required for full throughput are maintained.

The company stated: "Management is confident that this will work as an interim solution, at full production, with the intention of getting back to an optimal tank configuration of tanks one, two and three as leach tanks with 10 absorption tanks over the next few months."

Following the incident, the company said that immediate modifications were made to the processing circuit to allow limited milling and production to continue.

These modifications included using tanks one, four and five as leach tanks and were tested in February and March whilst running the mills at a lower throughput. Mwana Africa said that this configuration had enabled full mill throughput to now be re-established.

Mwana Africa's share price was up 1.62% to 4.70p at 09:51 on Friday.

MF