Kounrad Production Update

RNS Number : 4646R

Central Asia Metals PLC

29 June 2015

 

29 June 2015

CENTRAL ASIA METALS PLC

("CAML" or the "Company")

Kounrad Production

Central Asia Metals plc (AIM: CAML), owner and operator of the Kounrad copper cathode producing facility in Kazakhstan, wishes to inform the market that an incident occurred on site on Friday 26 June 2015 which will impact on production guidance for 2015 of 13,000 tonnes.  No one was injured in the incident

During normal production activity a problem occurred in the solvent extraction (SX) section which resulted in a significant quantity of the organic inventory being lost to the dumps within a very short time frame.  After inspection, it was identified that one of nine weir plates in the recently commissioned SX mixer settler had fallen out of position, resulting in the ability of the organic inventory to escape from the circuit via the raffinate and onto the dumps.  The reasons for the failure of the weir plate are currently being investigated by site management.

On Saturday the problem was rectified and the plant was started again but at a much lower flow rate.  This will continue for several more days until the site team can stabilise the plant and determine the full extent of the loss of organic inventory, any impact on the pipeline infrastructure and the duration of time that the plant will need to operate at reduced production capacity before the organic inventories can be replenished.

The impact on full scale production at Kounrad is temporary and will not affect the ability of the plant to produce high quality copper cathodes at extremely competitive costs of production.

Once the situation has been properly assessed over the next few days and we have had chance to discuss the delivery of reagents with suppliers we will be making a further announcement.

The Company expects to release its half year production update on Friday 03 July 2015.

For further information contact: Central Asia Metals plc	Tel: [phone]
Nick Clarke, CEO Nigel Robinson, CFO
Peel Hunt LLP (Nominated Adviser & Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Matthew Armitt Ross Allister
Mirabaud Securities LLP (Joint Broker)	Tel: [phone]
Peter Krens
Bell Pottinger	Tel: [phone]
Lorna Cobbett

Note to editors:

Central Asia Metals PLC, an AIM-listed UK company based in London, owns 100% of the Kounrad SX-EW copper facility in Kazakhstan. The Company has recently invested a further $3m into Copper Bay Ltd in order to increase its ownership to 75%.  Copper Bay Limited is a private company that has just completed a pre-feasibility study of the Chañaral Bay Copper Project in Chile. At the 2014 UK Stock Market Awards, the Company was named Best Basic Resources Plc. For further information, please visit www.centralasiametals.com.

 

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