Perth, Australia (ABN Newswire) - Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) (OTCMKTS:VTXXF) process plant achieves 60% throughput rate of name plate capacity during processing campaigns while plant commissioning is ongoing with modifications to suit future Reward underground ore feed .

Vertex's Executive Chairman, Roger Jackson commented: "Its pleasing to see we have now almost fully tuned the plant to cater for a wider range of feed stock material. We are now gaining confidence in the processing and gold grade in the surface stockpiles, the fact they are sitting adjacent to the plant and offer an inexpensive feed source is a real advantage to the plant commissioning process.

"The processing of the surface stockpile material has presented some real challenges with the way the old stockpile material breaks down causing frequent blockages in piping. These blockages have hindered the plant availability and throughput, however, the processing team have worked diligently to overcome a vast number of issues in a short period of time.

"Our technical team and operators have been implementing low-cost components and strategies to minimise the fine material into the process. Whilst this has set us back in time with moving to cash flow it is important to note that our main game is mining the Reward high grade gold mine material.

Delays due to plant tuning today should translate to higher efficiencies earlier in the mine plan "Meanwhile our underground team has been busy preparing the historical workings in anticipation of the arrival of our TD1 jumbo drill rig with dewatering, ground support and re-entry tasks underway.

The TD1 jumbo is a crucial piece of mining equipment that will herald the start of a new and prosperous era of mining at the historical Reward Gold Mine.

"Every day I am excited to see the progress of development of the mine, and I look forward to updating investors as and when new news comes to hand"

Over the last 10 weeks the process plant has been steadily ramping up its through put capacity through the commissioning process.

Modifications to the plant include:

- Reducing the clearance in the jaw crusher.

- Dampeners over the sorting screen.

- Increasing the gold concentrate resident time in the Falcon concentrator.

- Increasing recycling load in the regrind mill.

- Adjusting water flows for different circuits in the plant.

- Reducing throughput density on the sand line.

These modifications have been important in increasing the plant utilisation and increasing throughput towards nameplate capacity and availability.

Further modifications and improvements have been identified in the following areas:

- A pre-screening scalper to reduce fines in the crushing system.

- Pre-screening oversize fines material to the re-grind mill prior to the Falcon concentrator

- Tails line (sand line) valves and performance review

- Tails hopper agitator unit

These improvements are planned for integration into the process plant over the next 6 weeks.

Commissioning of the plant using the existing low-grade surface stockpiles has initially enabled modest first concentrate production, allowing Vertex the opportunity to optimise the gold collection processes. A small sample of gold has been sent for refining and sale to test the process. A larger size gold concentrate batch is building as throughput increases. It will be dispatched for refining and sale when worthwhile volumes are obtained.

The low-grade surface stockpile material has been an important source of inexpensive feed material to commission the plant, providing invaluable processing information and support for the training of the new workforce. Further it has offered a rare opportunity to de-risk and optimise the processing flowsheet prior to commencement of mining high-grade underground ore from the Reward mine.

Long lead underground equipment has been ordered, including a TD1 jumbo drill rig (refer VTX ASX 4 March announcement) which is due to arrive from Kalgoorlie in 6 weeks. The arrival of the TD1 jumbo drill will be a key milestone in the development of the Reward mine, signalling a significant shift towards underground mining, and subsequently, underground ore feed into the process plant. Management continues to source other capital items required to furnish and operate the Reward mine.

Vertex continues to progress the Reward mine towards underground mining. Dewatering has commenced of old headings in preparation for the arrival of recently ordered underground mining equipment. Check scaling and assessment of historical ground support has been completed throughout historical areas of the mine.

Areas of concern have been identified and remediated where appliable. Additional ground support will be installed when the TD1 jumbo drill rig has arrived and has been commissioned on site.

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About Vertex Minerals Limited:  

Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) is an Australian based gold exploration company developing its advanced Hargraves and Hill End gold projects located in the highly prospective Eastern Lachlan Fold Belt of Central West NSW. Other Company assets include the Pride of Elvire gold project and Taylors Rock gold/nickel/lithium project both located in the Eastern Goldfields of WA. The focus of Vertex Minerals is to advance the commercial production of gold from its NSW projects embracing an ethical and environmentally sustainable approach.

Source:
Vertex Minerals Limited