Lonmin revealed today (23rd July) that its problematic Number One furnace will require another bout of rebuilding in order to be restored to full working order.

Operations at the facility were restarted last Wednesday after a 30-day closure, but the world's third-largest platinum producer confirmed that slag leaks have since occurred.

As a result, a redesign and reconstruction of the matte tap hold area will be required to solve the issue and has been pencilled in for the first quarter of 2010.

The furnace is currently processing 280 tonnes on a daily basis - about half of its normal capacity - while three replacement Pyromet furnaces are smelting 240 tonnes per day.

As a result, the company announced that it is only incurring losses of roughly 30 tonnes per day, meaning its earlier prediction of a full-year platinum sales dip of 20,000 oz remains in place.

"We still expect to achieve sales for the 2009 financial year of between 680,000 and 700,000 ounces of platinum," a Lonmin spokesman told Reuters.

"This result is dependent on the selling of metal-in-process inventory and on how the Number One furnace performs during the fourth quarter of the year."

Lonmin has a long track record of suffering processing incidents and confirmed recently that it lost 160,000 tonnes of ore production in the third quarter of its latest financial year.

Source:

UPDATE 2-Lonmin Q3 platinum sales dip, furnace needs rebuild (23/07/09)

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