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26 Independence Group NL
Dear Shareholders
It is my great pleasure to report to you
on the growth and progress of the
Company during FY2015.
FY2015 is the first full year of revenue
from the Tropicana Gold Mine (IGO 30%,
AngloGold Ashanti Australia 70%) and
this revenue has added significantly to
the record $499 million of revenue IGO
reported for FY2015.
During FY2016, the Tropicana Joint
Venture partners plan to focus on
optimising mill throughput rates. A
mill optimisation study is underway
to identify opportunities to increase
throughput from the nameplate
capacity of 5.8Mtpa. This will partially
offset the planned reduction in grade
when we discontinue our grade
streaming strategy at Tropicana
whereby we have been mining more
ore than required for the processing
plant, thereby allowing the lower grade
portion to be stockpiled and the higher
grade portion preferentially fed to the
processing plant. This strategy which
has been used over the first years of
the project has maximised the early
return of capital to the joint venture
partners. Additional throughput could
be achieved with modest capital
investment. A systematic replacement
and upgrade program is underway
on conveyor and pump drives. We are
also upgrading conveyor feeders and
rollers that in the past have caused
unplanned downtime.
MANAGING DIRECTOR’S REPORT
The Company continues
to see great potential
at Tropicana, Long and
Jaguar as well as the
prospects at the Nova
Project which is fully
financed, in construction
and scheduled to produce
first concentrates in
December 2016.