Vedanta Zinc (VZI) will increase iron ore production at its Black Mountain Mine (BMM) in Aggeneys, Northern Cape, South Africa.
The company is rolling out a new iron ore product and has already begun building a 3mn mt per year iron ore plant. The pilot facility has commenced its first production and the site is projected to develop considerably during 2021.
During Phase 1 of the project, the output is slated to reach 700,000mt to 1mn mt of iron ore consisting of sinter feed and dense medium separation (DMS) feed.
BMM mines zinc, lead, and copper, with 1.7mn mt of yearly ore production with metal-in-concentrate output capacity of 90,000mt per year.
The iron ore venture will add another product line to VZI-BMM’s operations. The project will initially use feed from current operations to produce high-grade 67pc or above iron ore while DMS will be used as feedstock for the steel and coal industries.
The project will increase competitiveness to the present VZI-BMM operations, add global cost-efficiency, sustainability, and boost the mine life of active operations, VZI indicated on Tuesday.