Borneo Resource begins first gold production at Ratatotok
Monday, March 10 2014 - 03:54 PM WIB
US firm Borneo Resource Investments Ltd., a mining company that mines gold and develops producing gold mines as well as coal mining properties in Indonesia, announced on Monday it has begun full production on its Ratatotok South gold property in Southeast Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi Province.
Ratatotok South, which was acquired through Borneo's subsidiary PT Puncak Kalabat in December 2013, becomes the company's second producing gold mine.
Two successful test runs were completed at Ratatotok South in January and February, setting the stage for full production to begin in March. Approximately 2,500 metric tons of high grade ore have been excavated in the last few weeks and positioned in the heapleach containment area. Up to three processing cycles will be run on the ore to extract all of the gold it contains. At the end of each processing cycle the ore enhanced carbon will be moved from the site to the company's facilities in Manado for final processing.
"I am very pleased that we were able to move from acquisition, through the processing trials and to full production at Ratatotok South so quickly. Our team was able to fine tune the production process during the trials and our geologists supervised the excavation of a high grade ore body on the property for our first production run," commented Borneo CEO Nils Ollquist.
Ollquist went on to say, "Our geologists estimate the ore grade to be 2 to 3 grams of gold per metric ton. The estimated production output from 2,500 metric tons of ore for the first full production run is approximately 7 kg of 80% pure gold. Our intention is to continue to upgrade and refine our production capabilities and to expand our portfolio of high quality properties in the area."
Editing by Johannes Simbolon