Aureus Mining has placed an order with NCP International for the supply, delivery and installation of a ball milling system, which is due for delivery in May 2014, for the New Liberty gold project in Liberia. The placing of this order is part of Aureus’ strategy to source the longer–lead key plant items for the New Liberty process plant in sufficient time to facilitate the successful achievement of first gold in December 2014. The ball mill has a rating of 145 t/h and is capable of processing at a rate of up to 1.1 Mt/y of ore. The civil foundations will have been completed by the time of delivery, ready for the erection and assembly of the mill and supporting equipment. The mill is a critical component in the commissioning process and pre-commissioning checks on the mill are scheduled to be carried out in October 2014, with first gold production on track for December 2014.

The other key plant items that will be ordered in Q2 2013 include the crushers, apron feeder, slurry pumps, spillage pumps, water pumps, carbon pumps, screens as well as the re-grind mill. The procurement schedule for the ordering of key plant items is being driven by the DRA engineering team and the engineering activities for the overall plant construction are well progressed.

David Reading, President and Chief Executive Officer of Aureus said “We continue to make significant progress on the development and construction of New Liberty. The ordering of the ball mill is another critical step to ensure the timely and successful development of the Project. The placing of the mill order is an exciting step for Aureus, as the mill is the heart of our new process plant. We are pleased to be associated with NCP, which brings many years of milling experience to the Project.”