Meridian Mining Receives Water Permit for Brazil Project

Meridian Mining (TSXV:MNO) has announced that it has been granted a water-use permit by SEDAM (Secretary of State for Environmental Development, Rondônia, Brazil), valid through October 19, 2023, to be used for a rotating wet screen also known as a trommel at the Vitalino prospect.

The trommel will wash soil from the mined mineralization and produce a clean gravel mix for subsequent sizing then processing jigging.

As quoted from the press release:

The company has applied for additional water abstraction permits at the Ervino, Jair Mundi, Antônio Gomes and Araçatuba prospects, for use in wet screening.

With the addition of this permit the Company has achieved three key tasks:

• Continue to maintain the lower OPEX associated with pre-screening operations all year round including now the previously prohibitive wet season;
• Continue to produce stable volumes of higher quality Mn oxide concentrate all year round; and
• Plan for the long term via the 5 year permit validity.

In July, the incoming management commenced an optimization of the process flowsheet, whereby it would pre-screen the mined material at or adjacent to the point of extraction. Currently the company has three dry screens in the field with a fourth in installation. These screens remove waste soil and clay (and the finer gravels), producing a higher-grade pre-concentrate on site. The reduction in the fine waste component can reduce the volume of material to be trucked and processed by up to 75 percent in dry season conditions. This reduces the need to contain soil in the tailings ponds at the plants (and to truck it back to site for rehabilitation). This optimization has enabled the Company to reduce trucking rental requirements by 45 percent and is a projected fuel saving of greater than 35 percent.

The dry screens become inefficient during the wet season. By having the permit granted the trommel can be mobilized to the field allowing the company to continue to remove the waste soils and clays, and truck a pre-concentrate during the wet season. The dry screen rejects and the trommel reject is stockpiled for later rescreening and recovery of the finer gravel Mn oxide size fractions. The soil is returned to the extraction site (top-soil above the colluvial horizon is separately segregated to return the pasture to its natural productive state).

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