Lotus rebuilds drying section at its Malawian uranium mine following fire incident

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Australian uranium miner Lotus Resources (ASX: LOT, OTCQX: LTSRF) has suspended work in the drying and packaging section at its 85%-owned Kayelekera Mine in Malawi after a fire incident on April 4 . Lotus said in a release on April 7 that processes are now underway to replace two newly installed electrical control panels in the affected area.  Mining activities are continuing despite the fire damage. “The fire was detected and contained swiftly such that damage was limited to the two electrical panels and did not affect other aspects of the drying and packaging area,” it stated. “No personnel were impacted by the fire. A root cause failure analysis is in progress including as to the adequacy and performance of fire prevention mechanisms, with remedial actions being formulated. Lotus has suspended Kayelekera processing operations to develop and implement an interim solution, involving the onsite rebuilding of the panels which supply electrical power to the installation. Entirely new panels will then be sourced externally.” The incident is likely to result in production downtime of about three weeks for repairs, testing and recommissioning. Kayelekera mining operations will continue. Lotus MD Greg Bittar said the fire outbreak and the progress in positioning Kayelekera for steady-state production this quarter has been encouraging and the firm expects to achieve that milestone by June this year. “Reagent planning and inventories, mill performance and other key processing parameters all provide visibility on this,” he said. “Acid inventory level on site is at storage capacity with significant inventory pending offload and also enroute. As previously announced, overall acid supply combined with the inventory, ongoing delivery schedule and future orders for diesel and sulphur provide sufficient volumes for ramp-up to sustained steady-state production.  Global supply issues continue to materially impact the prices of key reagents and diesel for additional contracts.” He added that the onsite sulphuric acid plant is now ready for hot commissioning. However, given the full level of acid inventory on site, hot commissioning and acid production will be deferred until uranium production resumes. © 2026 bne IntelliNews, source Magazine

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