Eldorado Gold Switches On First 2 Of 6 Skouries Filter Presses, With The Other 4 Due In November
The Greek mine's plant now runs continuously and is lifting throughput as it moves toward commercial production, the company said.
Eldorado Gold said the first two of six tailings filter presses at its Skouries mine in northern Greece are now operating, so the plant is running continuously and raising throughput. The company announced the milestone in a release dated Monday, which it furnished to the SEC in a Form 6-K filed Tuesday.
Six presses, four needed to start
The Skouries tailings filtration facility has six Metso filter presses: five operating units and one installed spare. Filter presses squeeze water out of mine waste so it can be stacked as a dry material.
Four operating presses are required to support commercial production on sulphide ore, and five are needed to reach nameplate throughput, the company said. The sixth unit gives the plant room to take a press out for maintenance with no loss of throughput.
Commissioning of the remaining four presses is expected to be completed in November 2026, according to the company.
Filtered tailings at the core of the design
CEO Christian Milau called the start-up "an important commissioning milestone." He said filtered tailings are "a cornerstone of Skouries' design" and a key part of the company's Integrated Extractive Waste Management strategy, which he tied to better environmental performance and maximum water recovery.
Commissioning and ramp-up continue across the site, with the focus on steadily raising throughput and tuning plant performance on the way to commercial production.
What Skouries is meant to produce
Eldorado, which produces gold, copper and base metals from operations in Canada, Türkiye and Greece, expects Skouries to yield an average of 140,000 ounces of gold and 67 million pounds of copper a year over the life of the mine.
The company's market value was about $8.3 billion in Tuesday morning trading data.
The next marker is November, when Eldorado expects the last four presses to finish commissioning.
Sources
- Form 6-K — Eldorado Gold Announces Tailings Filter Presses Operational at Skouries — SEC EDGAR
- Eldorado Gold Announces Tailings Filter Presses Operational — globenewswire.com
- Eldorado Gold Announces Tailings Filter Presses Operational — globenewswire.com
