Saudi’s Almasane Alkobra Mining Company (AMAK) announced on Tuesday that Almasane mine expansion project for the development of the Moyeath orebody is 95 percent complete.

The company said in a stock exchange statement that the first zinc and copper concentrate cakes were successfully produced on 25 March 2024 at the new Moyeath plant.

‘The construction phases and the hot commissioning of the new processing plant have been almost completed as scheduled,’ the statement said.

Full commercial production is expected to start during the third quarter of 2024.

The statement also noted that the new plant is equipped with advanced technology and processes to increase the production volume of zinc by 80 percent and copper by 40 percent, with associated quantities of gold and silver, in addition to reducing production costs and enhancing efficiency and quality.

Moyeath is a third major orebody together with Saadah and Al Houra discovered in the immediate vicinity to AMAK underground mines.

The Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Maintenance (EPCM) contract for the 400,000 tonnes per annum Cu-Zn project was awarded to SENET, a wholly owned subsidiary of Australia-based DRA Global (DRA), by AMAK in August 2021.

(Editing by Anoop Menon) (anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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