Caledonia Mining Corporation (LON:CMCL) Chief Financial Officer Mark Learmonth caught up with DirectorsTalk for an exclusive interview to discuss the completion of the Tramming Loop and their No.6 Winze project.
Q1: I see from your recent announcement that Caledonia has provided an update for the revised investment plan, which you announced last November. It states that the Tramming Loop has completed ahead of schedule, can you tell us of completing the Tramming Loop?
A1: The Tramming Loop is important because it increases our ability to move material so that’s ore and development waste on 750 level which is the lowest level we currently operate at. One of the difficulties that we’ve faced over the recent months and years is it isn’t just capacity constraints on that level, it’s just like the London Underground with the Circle Line it’s just busy, it’s full, so we just need to improve capacity so we can move more stuff.
Q2: Now you’ve also announced that the sinking of the No.6 Winze is now completed but can you tell us about the No.6 Winze project?
A2: The 6 Winze is so important because that actually gives us a direct production so we have all the access to deeper level ore sources which have a slightly higher grade. This No.6 Winze project is something we’ve been working on for about three years now and we’ve increased our focus on that project over the last seven months or so. You were experimenting with some mechanism to remove waste from the ore sinking process, when that didn’t work we reverted back to tried, trusted and tested methodology which has worked quite well. We completed sinking that shaft fairly recently, we’re equipping it so it can be functional, that should be completed by the end of July and thereafter we can do horizontal development into the ore body and start production, scheduled in January next year. That’s very important because it does give rise to the increase in production and obviously higher production higher sales, but also because the fixed cost base at Blanket if you’re quite high, higher production also gives rise to a reduction in the average cost of production which further boosts our cash generation so that’s a very significant step forward for us.
