November production in Majdanpek Copper Mine comprises of around thousand tons of copper in the concentrated form with respective quantities of precious metals. It has been achieved despite the unpredictable difficulties and increasing obligations in relocating the infrastructure facilities and moving the machines from the North source to the South were work is planned in the next few months.
In the last days of November machines have been transferred from the central mining body of the North source to the Andesitic finger of the South source. – East is being exposed too – Around one thousand tons of copper has been produced in the concentrated form with accompanying quantities of precious metals.
In 26 days of November total excavation has reached more than a million tons, so the plan was fulfilled only by 65 percent, although the quantity of the ore excavated is only a few percent smaller than planned.
Regarding waste we had a bigger set back due to smaller number of working vehicles and frequent jams in the Transport system – Phase 1. Besides, we have been driving the longer distances which affected the result directly – said Goran Redzepic head of the production on the Surface pit. Also on the Surface pit, Phase1, there were problems with drums and field cleaning, with moving the disposers due to the lack of necessary machines. When it comes to heavy machinery, repair is being slowed down by the lack of the spare parts but we still believe there will be an increase in production since we are moving the bulk of work to the South source which will shorten the transport routes both for the ore and waste.
In order to continue the work in the Andesitic finger, we pumped the water from the river Pek. We succeeded and now we continue to work on extracting the ore, even though we have finished the planned work on the North source. “Marion 11” is already in the “East” where in the next few months and years we will be removing the waste. The goal is to reach the ore in the planned period of time – according to Branislav Tomic, the head of Majdanpek Copper Mine. He says that on November 26, relocation of the “PC2” machine from the North source, where they did more than it was planned, has started, towards the Andesitic finger where they should intensify the exposing and building of a new riverbed for the river Pek.
Ore extracted in Novemeber from the Central body of the North source had a larger content of copper than the ore from the Andesitic finger
All the ore that came from the surface pit has been processed. If there were no problems (regarding the pit, the grinding and the conveyer belts) which could not be avoided November would have been a record month and not only this year. The content of the precious metals was a bit more modest, but still sufficient to fulfill the plan. Regarding the ongoing work we are finalizing the replacement of the parts on the “HP6” grinder, from which we expect even better results.
We are bothered by the lack of spare parts, but all of the malfunctions were fixed only thanks to the employees who were skilled enough to find a solution – Jelena Djuric head of Flotation says.
November score from Majdanpek floaters is at the planned monthly level of 1000 tons of copper in the concentrated form with accompanying quantities of silver and gold. Its quality was within the requested limits of 20 percent as it is required. It is known though that the ore that will be excavated in December will have smaller content of copper and gold than the one from November
