JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Aim-listed gold-mining company Avocet Mining boosted its production for the first quarter of the 2010 financial year to 27 563 oz.

This was 1% higher than the 27 374 oz produced in the last quarter of the 2009 financial year, Avocet said in a statement to shareholders on Friday.

Production at the company’s Penjom mine, in Malaysia, was down 3% to 15 664 oz in the quarter ended June 30, 2009.

The ore grades treated were slightly higher than the previous quarter, but the ore milled had a higher proportion of active carbon, while insufficient carbon material had been available on the ore stockpile, the company reported, saying this led to a decline in recovery to 80%.

The company had already completed 45 000 m of its 80 000 m drilling programme at Penjom, saying it was investigating the potential of new resource areas beyond and at depth below the known orebodies.

A revised resource model, which would provide the company with more predictability of grades mined, was being drawn up and would be completed by the second quarter of the financial year.

“The efforts of Penjom’s management team are expected to yield higher gold production in the second half of the year, following completion of a more reliable resource model in the coming months,” Avocet CEO Jonathan Henry stated.

Its North Lanut project, in Indonesia, had, meanwhile, seen a 5% increase in gold production to 11 899 oz in the first quarter of the year, owing to higher grades and an increase in the tons processed, as a result of a new leach pad, which was completed in March.

“The continuing improvement at North Lanut reflects ongoing work by the mine’s management team to optimise leach practices and to fully exploit the new leach pad completed in March,” said Henry.

Meanwhile, Avocet reported that the first gold pour at its Inata project, in Burkina Faso, is expected to take place in the October to December quarter.

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