PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed gold miner Doray Minerals has increased production from its Andy Well mine, in Western Australia, to 21 328 oz of gold during the quarter ended March, up from the 20 963 oz delivered in the previous quarter.

“Doray delivered record monthly production in March, and importantly, remained on track to meet its increased 2015 financial year production guidance of between 85 000 oz and 90 000 oz, with cash operating costs expected to be in the range of A$600/oz to A$700/oz," said Doray MD Allan Kelly.

Cash operating cost expectations were down from the previous estimate of between A$700/oz and A$800/oz.

C1 costs for the quarter ended March were reduced to A$556/oz, compared with the A$633/oz achieved in the previous quarter, while year-to-date C1 costs reached A$648/oz.

“As expected, once production from the Stage 2 openpit commenced, we knew that would see an immediate positive impact on our gold production and resulting operating costs. Even before that though, we have been working hard to reduce both our cash operating and total costs and have seen very positive results for the year to date,” Kelly said.

Revenue for the quarter under review reached A$29.6-million, compared with the A$31.3-million reported in the December quarter, after gold sales decreased from 21 584 oz to 19 760 oz.

Meanwhile, during the quarter under review, Doray completed its takeover of fellow listed Mutiny Gold.

Doray was now hunting for funding to develop Mutiny’s Deflector copper/gold project, also in Western Australia, with the aim of bringing the project into production by 2016.

Once in production, the Deflector project would effectively double Doray’s production to about 160 000 oz/y gold equivalent. The project would likely deliver about 63 000 oz of gold, 2 662 t of copper and 60 000 oz of silver.