Business
Aberdeen Highlights Production Activities at African Thunder Platinum
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 22, 2016) - ABERDEEN INTERNATIONAL INC. ("Aberdeen", or the "Company") (TSX:AAB) is pleased to provide a corporate and ope
About this update from Aberdeen International Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":" TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 22, 2016) - ABERDEEN INTERNATIONAL INC. (\"Aberdeen\", or the \"Company\") (TSX:AAB) is pleased to provide a corporate and operational update on African Thunder Platinum (\"ATP\"). African Thunder Platinum closed the acquisition of its platinum assets in early 2015 with the startup of the Smokey Hills mine occurring in January and the completion of mill commissioning on April 29, 2015. During the second half of 2015 (July to December), African Thunder continued to experience significant progress on increasing production from the mine, however the pace of the underground development and production ramp-up fell short of the Company's initial expectations due to several factors, including poor equipment availability, several senior management changes, and employee absenteeism that was at the root of low overall mining productivity. These issues are being addressed to the Company's satisfaction and production results in 2016 have shown significant improvement. For 2015, the mine produced 234,000 tons of ore and development material at an average grade of 3.1 g/t 4E PGM (platinum, palladium, rhodium and gold) and total production of 16,381 oz 4E. As is typical in South African platinum mines, the material recovered in development of adits and raises is blended with the higher-grade ore from stopes, lowering the overall grade delivered to the mill, depending on the ratio of ore to development material. This ratio of ore to development material is lower during ramp-up and should stabilize as full production is achieved. The mill has been operating since April and has been delivering results as expected, with a weighted average recovery over the calendar year of 75%, which includes lower recovery over the first few months of operation. Overall PGM recoveries trended towards the design level of 80% and the mill has achieved a recovery rate of 79% over the first six weeks of 2016. Production early in 2016 has improved over the fourth calendar quarter of 2015, with underground production so far in February achieving approximately 80% of the full production plan of 42,000 tpm. We are currently estimating that our year-to-date mining costs (on a per tonne basis) would place the mine in a very competitive position relative to the South African platinum mining sector. That being said, the mine is still ra...