As part of Tasiast’s continuing efforts to optimize the operation, the site team set out to increase daily throughput while reducing the overall cost per tonne. Six months later, the team’s efforts have paid off, as the site increased throughput to 7,500 tonnes per day in Q4 2015 from 6,800 tonnes per day in Q3 2015.
Led by Bob Markovic, Projects Manager, Processing, the Maintenance and Processing teams conducted a thorough operational analysis where they discovered concrete steps to increase the mill’s efficiency.
At the mill, the team made engineering enhancements to the tertiary crushing circuit, as well as the milling and screening process, and completed a comprehensive upgrade of the conveyor system.
They also found that occasional power outages caused the mill to be out of service for long periods of time. The teams, along with Site Services, fixed the power supply to reduce mill downtime.
New blasting techniques at the site by Michael Servos, Senior Drill & Blast Engineer and Korhan Tasoren, Senior Geotechnical Engineer, have also helped improve fragmentation. Rocks are now smaller after the blast which makes milling and processing easier and more cost effective.
Tasiast has also implemented a new cost control system to monitor daily production costs on an ongoing basis.
“These improvements are the sum of one hundred parts. Every employee at the site has contributed to these changes and positively impacted the overall success of our operation,” said Raitt Marshall, Vice-President and General Manager, Tasiast.
