Nevsun Completes the Zinc Flotation Plant and Commences Ore Commissioning

Nevsun Resources (TSX:NSU) has announced the completion of the new zinc flotation plant at its Bisha Mine in Eritrea. The new zinc flotation plant adds to the existing copper flotation and Bisha will continue to produce both copper and zinc for the remaining current nine-year primary reserve life.
Cliff Davis, president and CEO, said:

We are again very pleased with how the zinc plant expansion has progressed, on time and under budget. We look forward to reaching commercial production before the end of Q3. In the meantime, we will continue to accelerate the monetization of the DSO high grade gold equivalent stock piles so as to augment cashflow during 2016.

As quoted in the press release:

This Bisha zinc expansion project will average over 100,000 tonnes (225 million pounds) of zinc and 20,000 tonnes (45 million pounds) of copper per year for the next nine years from mid-2016 and has excess capacity to absorb additional feed that might come from additional deposits without yet defined mineral reserves from Bisha deeps, Harena or Asheli.
Construction of the zinc expansion project is complete.  The project included replacement of the copper regrind mills with a new, more efficient IsaMillTM, identical to the regrind mill in the zinc plant.  Wet (i.e., cold) commissioning tests, utilizing air, water and slurry are now finished. Bisha has started hot commissioning using lower quality boundary material ore to start plant optimization and ramp-up, and to generate combinations of various copper, zinc and bulk concentrates until transition to commercial production later, utilizing primary ore. The commissioning process is anticipated to take no more than three months to complete and will allow the Company to optimize the efficiency of the plant and maximize recoveries of copper and zinc in their respective concentrates.

Click here to read the full press release.