Aureus Mining forced to halt mining operations in Liberia for a few days

Shares in Aureus Mining plunged over 12% early on Tuesday, after the gold explorer revealed it had to temporarily suspend production at one of its mine in Liberia.

The London-listed group said a mechanical fault with one of its crushers forced it to halt operations at its New Liberty gold mine, which had only begun production in September this year.

However, Aureus said it has mobilised a temporary crusher and expects to lose only a “few days” of gold production, adding the crusher should be fixed by the end of the month.

“Though this is a challenging development during what are the early stages of the ramp up of the New Liberty gold mine to commercial production, we believe that the installation of a temporary solution whilst the secondary crusher is being repaired will result in only a few days of lost gold production,” said group president and chief executive David Reading.

Last month, a shortage of dynamite momentarily hindered initial operations at the same mine.

Aureus Mining shares were down 11.22% to 18.20p at 0953 BST on Tuesday.