With construction of Pan Australian Resources’ Phu Kham copper-gold mine in Laos 95% complete the wet commissioning process has started at the processing plant.

The project is on track to start concentrate production shortly, significantly ahead of the original mid-2008 schedule. The project remains within the US$241 million capital budget.

Water has been pumped from the tailings storage facility via the recently commissioned decant water pumping system in readiness for wet commissioning of the flotation cells. The compressed air and flotation blowers are being commissioned.

The SAG and ball mills are mechanically complete and wet commissioning of the SAG and ball mills will start shortly.

Several of the electrical substations are operating and the processing plant is being progressively energized. Structural steelwork for the 1km long overland conveyor from the crusher to the intermediate stockpile is nearing completion and the conveyor belt installation has started. The reclaim system, which transfers ore from the intermediate stockpile to the processing plant, is mechanically complete.

Commissioning with copper-gold ore will occur this month with the crusher, grinding circuit and rougher flotation circuits commissioned first, followed by the cleaner flotation and concentrate circuits, and finally the balance of the process circuit.

There is more than 390,000 tonnes of copper-gold ore at a grade of 0.43% copper and 0.24 grams/tonne gold stockpiled ready for processing.

At full production, the plant is designed to process 12 million tonnes of ore per annum to produce more than 200,000 tonnes of concentrate containing, on average, around 50,000 tonnes of copper, 50,000 ounces of gold and 400,000 ounces of silver.

Concentrate will be trucked from the mine to a port facility at Sri Ratcha in Thailand, about 120km south of Bangkok, for export to custom smelters. On the return leg of the journey, the otherwise empty trucks will be used to transport bulk commodities like coarse lime, grinding media and bulk explosives as well as general freight to the mine site, generating significant savings on freight costs.

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