PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A planned two-week maintenance period at the Leonora operation, in Western Australia, has resulted in ASX-listed St Barbara reporting a significant decline in gold production during the September quarter.

During the three months under review, group gold production reached 68 823 oz, compared with the 91 565 oz reported in the previous quarter.

The Leonora project produced 56 184 oz of gold during the quarter, compared with the 78 810 oz produced in the June quarter, while Gwalia produced 45 391 oz, compared with the 59 389 oz produced in the previous quarter.

Gold production at King of the Hills also declined to 10 793 oz during the quarter, compared with the 19 421 oz produced in the three months to June.

St Barbara reported on Tuesday that ore containing an estimated 11 500 oz of gold was stockpiled at Leonora at the end of the quarter, and since the plant shut down, gold production from the stockpiled ore had been exceeding plan. It indicated that the production loss would be recovered by the end of the December quarter.

Meanwhile, production at the Simberi operation, in Papua New Guinea, remained steady during the September quarter with the mine producing 12 639 oz of gold, in line with the 12 755 oz produced in the previous quarter.

Production at the Gold Ridge operations, in Solomon Island, remained suspended during the quarter under review, with the force majeure conditions continuing.

Operations were suspended in April this year, and the miner has been unable to resume production at Gold Ridge.

The Solomon Island government recently appointed advisers to assist in negotiating the proposed transfer of the Gold Ridge operation to the government; however, St Barbara noted that no significant progress had been made.

Looking ahead, the miner was targeting production of between 240 000 oz and 270 000 oz at the Leonora operations, and between 70 000 oz and 80 000 oz from Simberi during the 2015 financial year, as gold production at the mine increased to a 100 000 oz/y run-rate by the June quarter.