Commissioning of the carbon-in-leach (CIL) process plant has commenced ahead of schedule at Sumatra Copper & Gold’s Tembang Gold-Silver Project in Sumatra, Indonesia.

The power station at the CIL plant is operational, two of three motor control centres (MCC) have been energised and the complete crushing circuit has been operated without ore. Concrete works, steel fabrication and installation have been completed. The third and final MCC was expected to be energized on July 30.

The mechanical equipment installation is complete and SAG mill liners have been installed. Electrical and instrumentation installation was 86% complete at the end of last week.

The supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system is operation and is being commissioned. There have been 52 drives direction tested and checked from the SCADA system.

Open pit ore mining at Berenai has commenced and ore is already being delivered to the run-of-mine (ROM) pad at the CIL plant in preparation for wet commissioning.

The company says ground support is being installed above the portal access at the flagship Belinau underground mine with decline commencement scheduled early this month.

Dewatering of the Belinau open pit is 90% complete and the pumps will be relocated to the Berenai open pit to commence dewatering later this month. The temporary tailings storage facility has been completed and land clearing will start this month in preparation for construction of the main facility.

Construction of the mining workshop and mining office is complete.

The illegal action that was blocking road access to the site has ceased and traffic is operating normally. Sumatra says it will continue to work closely with the local community to maximize employment and other regional business opportunities.