Montage Gold has awarded an order to Metso for the delivery of key minerals processing equipment, including its HRC™ high-pressure grinding roll technology, for the company’s Koné gold project in Côte d’Ivoire.
The value of the order is approximately EUR 50 million ($52 million).
Metso’s delivery includes a large dual-pinion Premier™ grinding mill with installed power of 22 MW and an HRC™ 2400e high-pressure grinding roll (HPGR), which, Metso says, combines energy-efficiency and high throughput while reducing operational costs.
The ball mill will be equipped with Metso’s metallic mill lining and Polymer Hydrostatic Shoe Bearing system, while the HRC will be fitted with flanged roll technology enabled by Metso’s advanced mechanical skew control system.
For the crushing circuit, Metso’s delivery consists of a Superior™ MKIII 54-75 primary gyratory crusher and Nordberg® MP1250 cone crushers. In addition, Metso will deliver high-rate thickeners with Reactorwell™ feed system. The Premier ball mill, HRCe HPGR and high-rate thickeners with Reactorwell feed system are part of the Metso Plus offering.
Peder Olsen, President & Chief Development Officer at Montage Gold, said: “We are pleased to have chosen Metso for our HPGR installation after a thorough due diligence process, which included detailed trade-off studies and site visits to evaluate the performance of Metso’s HPGR at a mine site, demonstrating high and reliable throughput. It was also a pleasure to visit their factory and meet the dedicated employees who are committed to delivering our installation on time and within budget. We look forward to a strong partnership with Metso, driven by their advanced technology, and their strong commitment to service and ongoing support.”
Kai Rönnberg, Vice President, Minerals, Asia-Pacific at Metso, said: “Given that Montage Gold’s Koné project ranks as one of the highest quality gold projects in Africa due to its sizeable low-cost production and long mine life, we are very pleased to have been chosen as the partner for the delivery of the key processing equipment for this project. Our aim is to optimise the process for sustainable, high throughput with reliable, energy-efficient, and safe technology.”
First gold pour is targeted for the June quarter of 2027, based on a 27-month construction period for the process plant. Early works are well underway and major construction works, as well as water storage and dam construction, are due to commence early in the March quarter.
The plant nominal throughput as per the most recent study is 11 Mt/y, based on a primary crushing, secondary crushing and HPGR, milling and carbon-in-leach (CIL) availability of 75%, 88% and 91%, respectively.
