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M A R TA B E M I L L G-Resources' Martabe Mine and Mill Ramps Up to Full Capacity Indonesia's newest mining operation achieves significant milestones By John Miller, Editor, The ASIA Miner An aerial view of the Martabe site with the Purnama Ridge mining site at left and the processing facilities in the center. G-Resources expects to meet processing plant design capacity at its Martabe goldsilver project in North Sumatra early in the second quarter. It will be the latest in a series of impressive milestones achieved in a relatively short timeframe since first gold was poured last July. With a resource base of 8.05 million oz of gold and 77 million oz of silver, Martabe is the company's core starter asset and at full capacity is expected to annually produce 250,000 oz of gold and 2 million - 3 million oz of silver. The project has generally met expectations since first gold, has exceeded the guidance put to the market in October for the remainder of 2012, and is still doing very well, explained Peter Albert, CEO, G Resources. "After first gold on July 24 there was still some construction to be done which was completed by the end of September with the last construction workers leaving 88 E&MJ; • APRIL 2013 the site by mid-October," Albert said. "August was a commissioning month, we started to ramp up in September, had a hiatus from mid-September to the end of October with a shutdown, and then in November and December we came back into it at full steam with December being a cracker month, and it has continued since then. "We plan to reach design capacity in the second quarter and are on schedule for that, more than likely in the early part of it," Albert said. "Although we are still ramping up the processing plant, we are very pleased with its performance. As with all plants there are a few niggles to be remedied and tweaks to be made but we did a lot of that during commissioning and by December were at about 80% capacity in the milling circuits and more than 100% in gold production due to the fact that the grade was very good and recovery was fantastic. We are progressing very well on the ramp-up curve and at times have hit nameplate capacity and even exceeded it. "We are mining down the ridge at Purnama and by early February had come down 40 m," Albert said. "Contractor Leighton Indonesia is doing a fabulous job. There are a number of areas opened up on the ridge where we are extracting ore and a number of stockpiles developed from which we are shifting material into the ROM and crusher feed. As far as grade control is concerned, we continue to deliver against the resource plan and often a little bit better." G-Resources is working with two contractors at Martabe, who, Albert believes are excellent big fleet contractors, all with the right equipment. "Leighton Indonesia is carrying out mining at Purnama and most work on the tailings storage facility—lifting the dam wall with waste and other material from www.e-mj.com