Wilton completes second leaching pool at Ciemas gold project

By Romel S. Gurky

SGX-listed Wilton Resources Corporation said construction of the second leaching pool at its Ciemas gold project in Indonesia?s West Java Province has been completed.

The company said last week that capacity of the second pool is also 1,000 tons of oxide ore per cycle. ?It is currently under preparation for a treatment cycle of oxide ore at full capacity. As with the first leach pool, the production leaching cycle time will be about six weeks, therefore the gold pour from this batch is expected in 2QFY18 (second quarter 2018),? Wilton said in a statement.

Additional leaching pool will be added in stages to expand production capacity, it said. Preparation for the construction of a third leaching pool is underway. It is expected to be completed in 2QFY18.

In addition to increasing the group?s production via the pool leaching, and in order to process higher grade sulphide ores, the group plans to construct a 500 tpd production plant utilizing a flotation and carbon in leach flowsheet. Wilton is finalizing the detailed engineering design of this plant and is in discussions with an EPC contractor for its construction and commissioning. Further announcements will be made in due course.

Wilton said a feasibility study on the 1,500 tpd main production plant, and the Ore Reserves estimation on the Four Main Prospects are in progress, and expected completion in 2QFY18

Further expansion on the construction of supporting infrastructure that will serve the extended production plant is on-going.

In parallel to the aforesaid production and construction, the mining activities have also been increased accordingly to match up with the increased in production capacity.

As previously indicated, the second batch of leaching, like the first gold pour, utilized only half of the pool capacity due to the on-going process optimization. It processed approximately 500 tons of oxide ore with an average grade of 2.8 g/t. A recovery rate of 68.6 percent was achieved and 961 grams of gold with 99.0 percent purity of gold has been produced. The production cycle of the first leaching pool can now be repeated every six weeks. The third batch of leaching and subsequent batches will utilize the full capacity of the first leaching pool of 1000 tons of oxide ore.

Following the completion of first leaching pool, the associated processing plant and the supporting infrastructure, and the first gold pour in August 2017, the group has since completed the second round of gold pour in September 2017.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak