Element 25 Limited advised that the processing plant at the Company's Butcherbird Manganese Project (Project) is demonstrating significant performance improvements since the logwasher repair and engineering modification works were completed on schedule in late December 2021. The works undertaken during December 2021 focussed on the repair of the shaft failure as announced and updated on 22 November and 13 December 2021 respectively and the implementation of a range of engineering improvements that had already been planned prior to the plant failure. Pleasingly, plant production volumes have shown significant improvements since re-commissioning of the plant, with a new daily production record of 1,209 tonnes being achieved on 3 January 2022, well above the target nameplate production of 1,000 tpd for the Stage 1 production plant.

In parallel with the repair works, a range of modifications have been made to the plant to improve plant access for maintenance, manage material flow through the plant, reduce wear on key components, improve noise and dust control as well as adjusting the overall site layout to increase operational and maintenance scheduling flexibility and throughput.