The arrival of key plant components in Indochina has brought Pan Australian"s Phu Kham copper-gold project closer to fruition.

Ball mill shells have arrived at the Phu Kham project site in Laos while the semi-autogenous grind (SAG) mill shells and primary crusher have arrived in Thailand.

Delivery of all critical path mill components is expected to be completed by the end of September and pre-commissioning of the plant is scheduled to start in December.

The Phu Kham project remains ahead of schedule for first concentrate production by mid-2008 and within the US$241 million capital budget.

The mill shells were fabricated in South Africa and most of the ancillary components were fabricated in Australia. The SAG mill is 10.4 metres in diameter by 5.6 metres in length and the ball mill is 7.3 metres in diameter and 12 metres in length. Each mill will draw 13 MW of power.

At full production, the Phu Kham Copper-Gold Mine is designed to mine and process 12 million tonnes of ore to produce more than 200,000 dry metric tonnes of concentrate per year containing on average 50,000 tonnes copper, 50,000 ounces of gold and 400,000 ounces of silver.