Vast Resources upbeat on latest work at Manaila mine

Mining company Vast Resources updated the market on developments at its Manaila polymetallic mine in northern Romania on Friday, reporting that it was still evaluating the restart of production.

The AIM-traded firm said that as part of the process, it had been working with Tomra to assess the suitability of x-ray sorting technology (XRT) to optimise the mine’s production profile.

It said that assessment demonstrated that, by installing an XRT machine at the plant to pre-concentrate ore at the pit, the technology would be highly effective for three reasons.

The first would be a reduction in transportation costs, as improved mass reduction would significantly reduce the material being transported from the mine to the processing plant.

Secondly, the installation would lead to a reduction in processing costs due to reducing the throughput at the plant, and thirdly, a higher-grade product would end up being delivered to the plant.

The company said it expected that processing and transportation costs could be reduced by up to 55%, with that cost reduction possibly having a “dramatic impact” on the mine’s financial performance.

Samples from both types of mineralisation at Manaila - massive sulphide and disseminated sulphide - were sent to the Tomra test centre in Wedel, Germany, to ascertain improved mass reduction and grade upgrade potential.

Both mineralisation types showed amenability to the XRT process, with metal content recovery on the massive sulphides at 95.4% for copper, 93.6% for lead and 95.2% for zinc in 71% of the mass.

The disseminated sulphides returned a metal content recovery of 84.2% for copper, 67.2% for lead and 84.4% for zinc in 35% of the mass.

Vast said the combined results showed that 93.1% of copper, 82.2% of lead and 92.4% of zinc metal could be recovered in 45% of the mass when mining the polymetallic ore on a ratio of three tonnes disseminated sulphide to one tonne of massive sulphide, being the typical historical ratio of mining at Manaila.

“These results, coupled with the strong recovery in commodities prices this year, highlight Manaila’s position as a commercially attractive project alongside our Baita Plai Polymetallic Mine,” said chief executive officer Andrew Prelea.

“These results clearly underpin our view that Manaila is economically viable, and the management team are considering various mine plan scenarios of bringing Manaila back into production.

“It is our preference to secure the required funding via non-equity linked sources and we will provide further updates to the market in due course.”

At 1009 BST, shares in Vast Resources were up 2% at 6.38p.