Central Asia Metals PLC Production resumes at Sasa (0235B)
October 05 2020 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMCAML
RNS Number : 0235B
Central Asia Metals PLC
05 October 2020
5 October 2020
CENTRAL ASIA METALS PLC
('CAML' or the 'Company')
Production resumes at Sasa
Central Asia Metals plc (AIM: CAML) today announces an update
following the 14 September 2020 leakage at its Sasa Tailings
Storage Facility 4 ('TSF4').
Environmental update
Extensive planning for the river clean-up has been undertaken
with the involvement of both Wardell Armstrong Limited and
in-country consultants, and CAML expects to receive the official
go-ahead to commence the clean-up work within a week. It is
projected that the bulk of the tailings will be removed and
disposed of in a secure and safe location on the Sasa mine site by
the end of 2020. The clean-up of a high priority 350 metre section
of the river has already been completed.
The environmental fine of EUR65,000 levied on Sasa has now been
paid.
CAML continues to work closely with local community leaders and
the authorities.
Production
As outlined in CAML's 28 September 2020 update, the physical
repairs to TSF4 were completed during the previous weekend. All
necessary engineering improvements to ensure the long-term safe
storage of tailings have now also been completed.
The Sasa management team received approval from the North
Macedonian authorities to once again operate TSF4 late on Friday 2
October and processing re-commenced that day. The Sasa plant will
initially operate at a reduced rate of approximately 50% for a
trial period while the technical team confirms the safe operation
of the facility. This trial period is expected to be in the order
of one week before the ramp up to full production.
In January, CAML gave 2020 Sasa ore production guidance of
between 825,000 to 850,000 tonnes, resulting in zinc in concentrate
of between 23,000 and 25,000 tonnes and lead in concentrate of
between 30,000 and 32,000 tonnes. While 2020 ore mined is likely to
remain within this guidance range, CAML now expects ore processed
to be between 800,000 and 825,000 tonnes given the downtime from
the incident. Despite this, both 2020 zinc and lead in concentrate
production are expected to be within the original guidance.
Excluding production downtime, an early indication of the total
cost of the TSF4 incident, comprising dam repairs and engineering
improvements to the facility as well as environmental aspects, is
expected to be below $1.5 million.
Further updates will be provided in due course.
Nigel Robinson, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
"Today's news is very positive in that we have been able to make
the necessary changes to TSF4 to ensure its long term safety and
that the authorities, with whom we have worked closely and
transparently in the weeks since the incident, have given us the
go-ahead to re-start our operations. We very much appreciate the
support we have received from these governing bodies in their
speedy review and approval of the measures taken by CAML.
"We are cognisant of our environmental responsibilities to the
local community and we will commence the clean-up of the entire
river as soon as possible.
"Furthermore, we should still be able to meet our original 2020
guidance for zinc and lead in concentrate production. We will
provide a further update on production from Sasa and Kounrad in the
forthcoming Q3 2020 operations update, which we plan to release in
the coming days."
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES
OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (EU) 596/2014
For further information contact:
Central Asia Metals Tel: +44 (0) 20 7898 9001
Nigel Robinson, CEO
Gavin Ferrar, CFO
Louise Wrathall, Director of Corporate louise.wrathall@centralasiametals.com
Relations
Peel Hunt (Nominated Advisor and Tel: +44 (0) 20 7418 8900
Joint Broker)
Ross Allister
David McKeown
BMO Capital Markets (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7236 1010
Thomas Rider
Neil Elliot
Blytheweigh (PR Advisors) Tel: +44 (0) 20 7138 3204
Tim Blythe
Megan Ray
Rachael Brooks
Note to editors:
Central Asia Metals, an AIM-listed UK company based in London,
owns 100% of the Kounrad SX-EW copper project in central Kazakhstan
and 100% of the Sasa zinc-lead mine in North Macedonia.
For further information, please visit: www.centralasiametals.com
and https://twitter.com/CamlMetals
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