It completed 67.2 million tonnes of waste pre-stripping by the end of June, against an initial target of 68Mt, and has started ore production, with 487,000t already mined, against a target of 500,000t to be stockpiled before plant commissioning.

Vedanta noted that the team had consistently achieved a production rate of 4-4.5Mt per month of overall rock mining and this was expected to continue into the project's operational phase.

The company has just begun feeding ore to the front end of the plant to build the required crushed ore stockpile to be ready for feeding ore to the mill, downstream flotation and dewatering sections of the plant by the end of July.

First product from the concentrator plant filter is then expected by early September.

Vedanta is aiming for Gamsberg to reach saleable concentrate production and the first truck shipment of the concentrate by the end of the September quarter, with ramp up to the full 4Mt per annum expected within a year from the first ore feed.

"The operations team is fully onboarded and is working to ensure a smooth operational ramp up," it said.

The company added that the Gamsberg smart ore movement digitalisation project — to provide real-time stockpile and blending management solutions to de-risk the ramp up of the concentrator — was on track to go live during August.