The commercial production of a zinc concentrate, coupled with the high-quality copper concentrate that we are now producing, will directly enhance profitability through both the increase in revenue and the reduction in costs per tonne.
Vast Resources has started full-scale zinc production at its Manaila Polymetallic Mine in Romania.
Since initial commissioning in the first week of September, 50t of zinc concentrate has been produced. The company is now targeting production of 150t a month.
Vast noted steady increase in zinc concentrate grade from an 18% zinc concentrate to 35%.
A long-term grade of 35% zinc is being targeted.
At present, reprocessing of copper tailings is underway to extract zinc content from the Manaila Polymetallic Mine.
This concentrate comprises around 2.5ppm gold and 250ppm silver.
Vast Resources CEO Roy Pitchford said: “The commercial production of a zinc concentrate, coupled with the high-quality copper concentrate that we are now producing, will directly enhance profitability through both the increase in revenue and the reduction in costs per tonne.
“These recent operational achievements have transformed Manaila’s performance and I look forward to presenting our next quarterly production report with this in mind.”
The Manaila mine is located 26km from the town of Iacobeni, where the project’s processing plant is.
The plant features crushing and milling equipment, as well as flotation circuits that produce copper, lead and zinc, with gold and silver credits.
Initially, the Manaila mining operation produced a 13% copper concentrate and a 3g/t gold concentrate, with copper having already been increased to 21.2%.
