PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Diversified junior Alkane Resources has reported a quarter of solid gold production at its Tomingley mine, in New South Wales, with gold production reaching 14 612 oz.
This was compared with the 15 347 oz of gold poured in the three months to December.
Gold sales for the March quarter reached 15 000 oz, up from the 14 250 oz sold in the previous quarter, with revenue increasing from A$22.6-million to A$24.3-million, as average gold prices also increased from A$1 593/oz to A$1 621/oz.
For the full year, Alkane was hoping to produce between 60 000 oz and 70 000 oz from the Tomingley mine.
Meanwhile, Alkane’s Dubbo zirconia project, in New South Wales, was inching towards development, with the state’s Environment Protection Authority in March granting an environmental protection licence, following the grant of a mining lease in December.
The Dubbo project was expected to extract 19.5-million tonnes of rare metals and rare-earth ores from an opencut mine, at a rate of one-million tonnes a year. Alkane was also proposing the establishment of a processing facility to produce 75 000 t/y of concentrate, which would be transported to either Port Botany or Newcastle for export.
Financing and offtake negotiations for the project were currently under way.