PERTH (miningweekly.com) –  Independent geotechnical assessments of the south wall failure in the Smarts stage 3 operation, at the Karouni project, in Guyana, have confirmed that full-scale mining operations can resume this month, gold miner Troy Resources has reported.

At the end of last year, Troy warned of unstable ground conditions at Karouni, after monitoring checks and telemetry controls at Karouni had indicated an increase in unstable ground conditions around the southern wall, within the Smarts pit, where the sand cover was at its thickest.

This resulted in the need to remediate a number of slippages, which, in turn, restricted access to some of the higher grade areas during Smarts' stages 2 and 3, and saw Troy downgrade its 2016 production expectations from between 70 000 oz and 80 000 oz, to between 63 000 oz and 65 000 oz.

“It is deeply disappointing for all stakeholders when unforeseen events disrupt operations to the extent that they nullify all the hard work and effort of everyone on site to get a new mine up and running in challenging conditions,” Troy CEO Martin Purvis said this week.

“The pit wall failure in Smarts Stage 3 interrupted a strong phase of improvements across all aspects of the mine and forced the management team to find alternative plans and solutions in short order to mitigate the impacts of the collapse.

“It goes without saying that events of this nature will be assessed to the fullest extent possible to ensure that the safety of each and every employee is never compromised,” Purvis added.

Meanwhile, Troy reported that production during the quarter had reached 14 839 oz of gold, compared with 13 329 oz produced in the previous quarter, while gold sales declined to 13 925 oz in the three months to December, from 15 211 oz sold in the September quarter.

“While the results for the December quarter fall short of expectations, they still represent a measure of the determination necessary to overcome significant problems that form part and parcel of the inherent risk associated with mining operations,” Purvis said.

“With the ‘all clear’ from the geomechanics assessment now formalised, the next challenge is to regain the positive momentum and continuous improvement evident in the operation before the disruption occurred and this process, with measures such as reverse circulation drilling for grade control and rock sheeting of all the ramps and the haul roads, is already under way.”