Navigator Resources nears milestone, to produce gold from Bronzewing in April

Near-term gold producer Navigator Resources (ASX: NAV) has achieved a major milestone - with the commissioning of the Bronzewing mill, in the process proving the naysayers wrong.
First mill testing at the Bronzewing Gold Project commenced on Saturday, 3 April 2010.
Site maintenance and commissioning staff have been undertaking scheduled maintenance activities, including alignment of the SAG mill drive train and re-tensioning newly installed mill liner bolts, as well as remedying minor electrical defects.
As of Thursday, 8 April 2010, the SAG mill commenced normal operations.
Importantly, mill throughput commenced at 150 tonnes per hour and will gradually increase over to 250tph - equivalent to the budgeted 2.0 million tonnes per annum - in the coming days.
Navigator is transitioning from explorer to producer, and has confirmed previous market advice that it expects to move from produce its first gold bullion during the month of April.
Navigator Resources has also advised today that it commenced road haulage of ore from the Cardinia area to St Barbara Ltd’s (ASX: SBM) processing plant at its Leonora Gold Project on Thursday, 8 April 2010.
Navigator managing director David Hatch said today, “mining contractor GWH is performing well. Since double shift operations commenced in late March and when mining reached the ore horizon, the first parcel of 30,000 tonnes of Bruno supergene ore has been generated very quickly.”
Haulage of that initial parcel will continue over the coming week, with processing scheduled to commence in mid April.
Mining conditions at Bruno to date have been better than expected, Hatch said. Providing the trend continues, the company expects to achieve higher productivity and lower unit costs with a future full scale mining operation.

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