Acacia Mining resolves Bulyanhulu overheating issue

Acacia Mining announced on Tuesday that it has resolved the previously disclosed issue of the overheating of the ball mill trunion bearing at Bulyanhulu, and the process plant is now operating at normal throughput levels.

The FTSE 250 firm said the overheating was found to be due to flex in the trunion footplate which led to increased friction on the bearing.

It said the issue was resolved by stabilising and reinforcing the base of the footplate.

“Further work will be carried out during a planned plant shutdown in Q4 2016 with a full bearing housing replacement to be installed during 2017 to provide a life of mine solution,” the company’s board said in a statement.

“As a result of the resumption of stable operation of the process plant and delivery of paste fill, we have recommenced stoping in the underground mine and our full year production guidance for Bulyanhulu remains unchanged.”

The board also reaffirmed its group expectations for Q3 2016 production to be broadly in line with Q1 2016, with unchanged full year production guidance of at least 780,000 ounces of gold.