CGA Mining (ASX:CGX) announced that it was expanding its mining fleet in order to service the expansion of its Masbate Gold Project in Philippines.
The gold producer said that it had secured a contract with a subsidiary of Leighton Holdings to increase the production at the mine. So Leighton Contractors Asia had ordered a larger fleet of heavy vehicles.
Two 200 tonne excavators and ten 100 tonne dump trucks will be ordered to raise the production levels by 67.3 % initially. This will allow the operational lifting of 920,000 bank cubic meters a month up from its current 500,000 capacity. Additional seven 100 tonne dump trucks will be ordered after six months. CGA says it is investing US $15 million upsize throughput to 6.5 million tonnes per annum at the Masbate project.
CGA chief executive Michael Carrick said the expansion of the fleet was an important step in profiting from the economies of scale. In a statement he mentioned that the sizing of the fleet is in line with the larger mining areas now available and is a reflection of the maturity and future potential of the operation at Masbate.