TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed Royal Nickel Corporation (RNC) has produced 3 296 oz of payable gold from its most recent toll milling campaign of Beta Hunt production, including material from the mine’s first production stopes.

The Toronto-headquartered company on Monday said production from the mine, located in the Kambalda mining district of Australia, included 1 939 payable ounces from the first two production stopes that had been brought online. This toll also included about 200 oz from high-grade ore grading more than 15 g/t from the existing Hand of Faith (HOF) area and a newly discovered high-grade area known as Mr Smith.

For June, RNC expected output to reach 2 800 oz to 3 000 oz of gold and payable production in the second quarter was expected to range between 6 400 oz and 6 600 oz. Current production rates were in line with the company’s 2016 production guidance of 35 000 oz to 45 000 oz of gold, it advised.

"At this point in time, when Australian dollar gold prices are near all-time highs, I am pleased that in just six months since gold development commenced at Beta Hunt, the mine is operating at a 34 000 oz to 36 000 oz annualised gold production run rate," president and CEO Mark Selby commented.

On Tuesday, Perth-based gold spot prices traded at about A$1 704/oz, having touched A$1 753/oz in February.

“It is also important to note that we have made the transition to mining a significant portion of production from stopes rather than development areas. I look forward to the second half of the year as grades and production volumes increase towards our 60 000 oz year-end target production rate as additional stopes in A Zone and Western Flanks are brought online and our drilling programme accelerates to achieve our targets of upgrading and expanding the gold resource base," Selby stated.

RNC advised that it had found significant coarse gold in the new Mr Smith area, stating that the latest intersection continued to confirm the potential from multiple bonanza-grade drill hole intersections identified during previous drilling.

Following the successful approach employed in mining the HOF zone, development targeted historical drill hole BE19-292, which had intersected 15 m grading 114.3 g/t gold (3.7 oz/t uncut) including 1.6 m grading 1 041 g/t gold, which itself contained an intersection of 0.07 m grading 23 000 g/t gold (739.5 oz/t) – known as the Mr Smith area.