The recently repaired primary crusher at North American Palladium‘s (PDL-T) Lac des les palladium-platinum mine in northwestern Ontario is already having an impact on production.
On budget and ahead of schedule, the crusher was commissioned on June 19, and managed to provide the entire coarse mill feed during the second quarter.
In early September, North American was forced to shut down the primary crusher to repair two vertical fractures that formed in the bottom shell.
During the quarter, Lac des les’ 15,000-tonne-per-day mill ran through more than 1.15 million tonnes of ore (or 12,692 tonnes per day) grading 2.08 grams palladium per tonne to produce 59,069 oz. of palladium in concentrate. That’s slightly higher than the first quarter despite a six-day shut down to repair a motor bearing in the semi-autogenous-grinding mill.
The mill also squeezed out 5,216 oz. of platinum, 5,050 oz. of gold, 714 tonnes of copper and 415 tonnes of nickel.
First-quarter production totalled 58,971 oz. of palladium derived from 1.2 million tonnes of ore (13,292 tonnes per day) running 2 grams palladium. Contract crushers took up the slack for the disabled primary unit.
The recovery rate between the two periods slipped marginally to 76.6% from 76.9%.
NAP says it met its first-half target by producing 117,860 oz. of palladium in concentrate, and with the primary crusher back in operation expects improved mill throughput and palladium production going forward.
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