Largo Resources Ltd. is pleased to provide an update on recent production as well as an overview of its operational outlook and goals for its Maracas Menchen Mine in Bahia, Brazil.
Production Update
The Company is pleased to report that it has produced 607 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide during the month of July, surpassing its previous record for monthly production of approximately 487 tonnes set in May, 2015, or by 25%.
Overall production rates have improved dramatically averaging approximately 19.6 tonnes per day, or approximately 74% of the Plant’s capacity during the month of July. The Plant has also recently demonstrated its ability to produce at higher rates more consistently. For example, it produced at or above 20 tonnes per day, or approximately 75% of the plant’s capacity, for a total of 18 days in July and of those, a total of 11 days were at or above 23 tonnes per day, which represents approximately 87% of the plant’s capacity.
Largo is additionally extremely pleased to report that during the month of July the Company achieved its full capacity production rate of 26 tonnes over the course of a single day which is a significant milestone for the Company as it demonstrates the Plant’s ability to produce at its intended name plate capacity.
Operational Outlook
The Company is extremely encouraged by recent production success and believes that production rates will continue to improve as it moves forward with its ongoing ramp-up optimization efforts, including operational and engineering improvements.
As the Plant has now demonstrated its ability to produce at or near its full design capacity rates (at or above 90%) over significant periods of time, the focus will now be to stabilize at these higher production levels on a constant daily basis.
In order to achieve this, Largo continues advancing several engineering optimization projects all of which will further improve the Plant’s ability to produce consistently (see press release dated June 8, 2015).
Mr. Michael Mutchler, Chief Operating Officer to Largo, stated: “We are extremely excited to report our production of 607 tonnes of vanadium produced in the month of July, which represents approximately 74% of the Plant’s design capacity and the strongest month of production to date. Additionally, we have demonstrated the Plant’s ability to produce at its full capacity levels over the course of a single day and have also maintained stability at levels above 87% for a total of 11 days which are both tremendous operational milestones for the Project. “
He continued: “We continue to aggressively pursue every opportunity to further enhance the Plant’s stability at these record production levels through several ongoing engineering optimization projects. We are greatly looking forward to achieving increases in our daily and monthly production rates from here.”
