Gold loses some luster after Trump’s decisive win
Gold’s slide is a marked turnaround for a commodity that had surged by more than 30% in the year leading up to the US vote.
Vancouver-based Monument Mining Ltd. is moving ahead with a Phase 3 expansion plan for its Selinsing mine and gold treatment plant in Malaysia. The expansion includes an additional milling, gravity and leach circuit.
The expansion will lift the treatment plant capacity from 400,000 tonnes per year to 1 million tpa. It will cost under CAD$8 million and is expected to be paid back in three months through operating cash flow, the company stated Thursday. The plant is slated for completion by the end of 2011.
“This plant will not only provide an increase in production capability and operating efficiency but will also provide necessary operating flexibility for processing blended feed as the operations mature,” said General Manager Kevin Wright. “Extensions to the ore zones identified by our exploration efforts along strike and down dip are likely to produce an increase in variability of ore types and our in-house design team has taken this into account.”
The Selinsing gold project began open-pit mining in 2009, with the first gold poured in September of last year. The facility is currently producing ore at a rate of 30,000 tons per month.
Monument is hoping to produce over a million ounces of gold per year for a 10-year mine life. The 2011 exploration program budgets $4.4 million for about 19,000 metres of diamond drilling.
