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GALENA MINING LTD. (“Galena” or the “Company”) (ASX: G1A) is pleased to announce that the construction progress at its Abra Base Metals Mine (“Abra” or the “Project”) has reached 73% complete as of 30 June 2022. Significant equipment arrivals over the last month include the remaining mill equipment, secondary and tertiary cone crushers, and the remaining LNG tanks. The completion of the installation of 16,000 solar panels also delivers another significant construction milestone.
Managing Director, Tony James commented, “Construction activities are rapidly progressing with concrete poured at 2,378m3 (95% complete) and structural steel installation already up to 237 tonnes (42% complete). Arrival of key overseas supplied equipment being the remaining mill equipment, secondary and tertiary cone crushers, and LNG tanks has certainly reduced risk and energised the remaining work programs.
Decline mining delays occurred over 12 days in June, when the decline intercepted an un-grouted drill hole, which produced water, requiring an increase in pumping capacity. This was quickly rectified, and the mine plans were updated to keep the mining schedule aligned with the plant construction and commissioning timeframe. Underground grade control drilling continued in June in preparation for ore mining as planned”.
Figure 1 – Abra mine construction site (photo: 28 June 2022)
Update on Abra Project progress
Overall progress continues to remain in line for Project completion followed by first commercial production in Q1 CY2023. The processing plant engineering, procurement and construction has reached 79% complete. Remaining items on the key equipment order list shown in Table 1 which are currently not received are the flotation cells and the regrind mill. The flotation cells are completed and are waiting shipping from China and the regrind mill is currently shipping from Germany and is expected in Melbourne by 12th August. The regrind mill is being shipped to Melbourne so that Glencore Technology can finalise assembly with some Australian components. The arrival of key items since the last update has enabled GR Engineering to consolidate their remaining work schedules and plans.
Mine decline development was delayed in June for 12 days when the west decline intercepted an un-grouted diamond drill hole forcing an upgrade in the mine dewatering capacity. A total of 128m was developed prior to the delay, taking the west decline down to 1,357mRL which is 44m vertically above the orebody. During the delay the mine installed its primary ventilation fan on the surface and upgraded the underground power reticulation. Once this work was completed, the hole was plugged, and mining resumed.
A revised mining plan has been completed and put in place to ensure that following this development delay, mining targets remain in line with the plant completion and commissioning timeframe.
In surface bulk earthworks, good progress was made on the tailing’s storage facility (“TSF”) during June. The final works package associated with the remaining non-processing infrastructure is progressing as planned.
Owners' costs and contingencies remain within budget.
Figure 2 - Progress of the Abra underground mine development to the 1 July (yellow).
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