By Romel S. Gurky
IDX-listed PT Wilton Makmur Corporation Limited Tbk (IDX: SQMI) has been forced to scale back mining and production activities at its Ciemas Gold Project in West Java Province. This decision stems from the country-wide unavailability of cyanide, a critical component essential for gold extraction in the mining industry.
SGX-listed gold mining firm Wilton Resources Corp Ltd, the parent of SQMI, said that its main operating unit in Indonesia has faced challenges since March 2024, as cyanide scarcity has disrupted normal mining operations. In response to this shortage, Wilton has prioritized the procurement of cyanide to resume full-scale mining and production activities.
“Consequently, from March 2024, the Group has to slow down its mining and production activities until the pricing and supply of cyanide have returned to normalisation. Meanwhile, the Group is in the process of applying for its import permit and quota to purchase cyanide directly from international cyanide suppliers to better manage its requirements,” Wilton said in a statement on Monday.
Read also: Wilton says W. Java gold mine enters commercial production stage
Late in November of last year, Wilton announced that the development and construction of the 500 tonnes per day flotation and carbon-in-leach processing facility at the Ciemas gold project has entered into commercial production stage.
The company reported that mining operations had achieved its target mining rate of 15,000 tonnes per month. The facility was operating at 300 tonnes per day with a recoverability rate ranging between 60% to 80%.
In November 2023, the company produced 7,713 grams of Gold Dore, and 17,333 grams of Gold Dore that is in the form of Pregnant Carbon Content which has yet to be stripped and smelted.
According to a previous report, the Ciemas flotation and carbon-in-leach production plant has an input capacity of 500 tpd and is upgradable to 1,500 tpd. With this capacity, the Ciemas plant is projected to be able to produce 38,634 troy ounces (toz) of gold or the equivalent of about 1 ton of gold per year, the company reported earlier.
Wilton owns the Cinemas gold concession with a total area of 3,078.5 ha through two subsidiaries, namely PT Wilton Wahana Indonesia and PT Liektucha Ciemas. The IUP mining business license is valid until 7 September 2030.
As of 30 June 2018, the Ciemas gold project contained an estimated mineral resources of approximately 46,058 kilograms (1,480,964 troy ounces) of contained gold, and an estimated ore reserves of approximately 25,203 kilograms (810,385 troy ounces) of contained gold, reported in accordance with the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) Code 2012 edition.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak
