TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian project developer Goldsource Mines’ has pushed out first production by about a month from the first phase of its Eagle Mountain gold project, located in Guyana, after critical equipment were damaged during delivery.

The TSX-V-listed company on Tuesday said that an automation control panel was damaged during shipment to site, which required replacement, delaying the previously targeted year-end production date by about four to six weeks.

Company president Yannis Tsitos advised that the replacement panel was currently being delivered by air-freight to Guyana, while testing of sections of the process circuit was in progress.

“We expect to be under budget with final commissioning and initial production to occur in early 2016,” he stated.

The testing of selected plant components had started, as most of the mine construction tasks were either completed or nearing completion.

ROBUST METRICS
Goldsource had in September last year filed the positive results of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the Eagle Mountain deposit with Canadian securities regulators, saying it planned to take a four-pronged approach to developing the project over four years.

Phase 1 would target a milling rate of 1 000 t/d, ramping up to 4 000 t/d by its fourth year. The first phase of the openpit mine project entailed building a 1 000 t/d gravity plant, which was expected to deliver gold at a cash operating cost of $480/oz over the eight-year mine life. The all-in sustaining cost was expected to average $620/oz.

The company would use conventional openpit mining and downhill-gravity slurry to transport weathered saprolite ore for processing.

The study expected the strip ratio to be low at 0.9:1, while the operation would not require blasting or surface haulage.

The PEA estimated that the project would process about 7.3-million tonnes of ore at a head grade of 1.2 g/t, producing about 168 700 oz of gold at cash costs of $480/oz over the project’s life.

The conceptual approach entailed yearly output over four years of 5 600 oz, 14 400 oz, 21 600 oz and 28 800 oz of gold, respectively.

Eagle Mountain hosted 3.9-million tonnes, grading 1.49 g/t gold, for 188 000 oz in the indicated category and 20.6-million tonnes, grading 1.19 g/t gold, for 792 000 oz in the inferred category.

About 40% of the project’s overall ounces comprised saprolite, or weathered ore, which could allow Goldsource to fast-track operations through low-cost gravity processing.

Despite the negative news, Goldsource’s TSX-V-listed stock on Tuesday gained 13.51% to close at C$0.21 apiece.