31st May 2016 09:11
LONDON (Alliance News) - Petropavlovsk PLC on Tuesday said an announcement by IRC Ltd, a Hong Kong-listed producer and developer of industrial commodities in which the London-listed company is a significant shareholder, is a "significant step forward" in bringing the K&S mine into full commercial production during the third quarter of 2016.
In a separate statement, IRC announced a successful trial production with the first test run of the processing plant facilities, which it called a "significant step" towards the completion of the full hot commissioning of K&S, and a major milestone before K&S's maiden commercial production.
The test run yielded 65.5% Fe grade wet concentrate, IRC said, which was in line with the original design estimates, on track to produce 65.8% iron high-grade premium product.
"We are excited about the good progress for the test runs as it means that our goal of producing 3.2 million tonnes of premium iron ore concentrate per year will become reality soon," Yury Makarov, chief executive of IRC, said in a statement.
China National Electric Equipment Corp "has been increasing the number of personnel on site while K&S is getting ready for its maiden commercial production. CNEEC reiterates that the operational plant is on schedule to be handed over to K&S, after which commercial production will commence. Production is expected to ramp-up to the design throughput of 3.2 million tonnes per annum in the third quarter of 2016," Makarov said.
The K&S mine is in the Obluchenskoye district in the Russian Far East, according to IRC.
Shares in Petropavlovsk were down 0.1% at 7.92 pence Tuesday morning in London.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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