Great Basin Gold Limited

Mid-tier Gold producer - Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa and the Carlin Trend of Nevada, USA

Free
Message: NR mill startup on schedule for 1st pour end Oct.

VANCOUVER - Great Basin Gold Ltd. ("Great Basin" or the "Company") (TSX: GBG; NYSE Amex: GBG; JSE: GBG) announces that the Burnstone Metallurgical Plant project, one of the final steps in the start-up of the Burnstone gold mine in South Africa, remains on track.

Successful commissioning of the Semi-Autogenous Grinding (SAG) mill and Ball mill has taken place. The SAG and Ball mills' commissioning went very smoothly; they are controlled using medium voltage drives, which offer improved reliability through the use of high voltage insulate gate bipolar transistors that are 99% efficient at full load and have a high dynamic response based on voltage source inverter technology. This is the first application of this technology in South Africa.

Development muck has initially been run through the system during the test period to fill lockup areas. Conveyors were run at low speed to assess if there were any problem areas. All mills and conveyors performed well. A loading bin was added to the SAG mill conveyor. This part of the mill design provides additional flexibility, enabling material to be fed into the mills bypassing the silo. Crushing has been continuing with 3,000 tonnes processed.

The current focus is to commission the gravity circuit, which will be followed by the Carbon-in-Leach circuit. The first gold pour is expected before the end of October 2010.

Commissioning of the vertical shaft is progressing well with both conveyances tested and shaft signaling devices already in place. The shaft is scheduled to be inspected by the Department of Mineral Resources on Thursday, October 14, 2010 for final testing and licensing.

Ferdi Dippenaar, President and CEO, commented: "Good progress has been made in the Burnstone Metallurgical Plant. Commissioning of the two mills is a significant milestone, and attention has now shifted to the remaining metallurgical plant infrastructure."

Johan Oelofse, Pr.Eng., FSAIMM, Chief Operating Officer of Great Basin and a qualified person, as defined by Canadian regulatory policy, has reviewed and assumed responsibility for the technical information contained in this release

Share
New Message
Please login to post a reply