JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – London-listed gold mining and exploration company Avocet Mining on Thursday said gold production and cash costs for 2013 were expected to remain in line with that of the prior year.
The Inata gold operation, in Burkino Faso, was expected to produce about 135 000 oz of gold at a cash cost of between $1 050/oz to 1 100/oz during the next year.
This followed a nine-month review of Inata's reserves, which showed a decrease in reserves from the 1.85-million ounces reported in 2011, to 920 000 oz in 2012, on the back of weak recoveries and plant throughput, besides others.
The testwork also reported an increase during the year of the group’s combined mineral resources – reaching 8.69-million ounces, from 6.26-million ounces in 2011.
As many of the new resource ounces were located in shallow areas with benign metallurgy, the larger resource base at Inata and the Souma exploration project, located 20 km from Inata, was expected to contribute to increases in the updated reserves.
The Inata operations recorded a mineral resource of 4.69-million ounces, while the neighbouring Souma exploration achieved resources of 780 000 oz and the Tri-K development project, in Guinea, recorded resources of 3.22-million ounces.
“This update on both mineral resources and ore reserves follows a pivotal year of exploration, resource definition and metallurgical testwork on the Inata orebody,” Avocet CEO David Cather said.
“In view of the opportunities open to us, however, I view the new reserve as a base, and, therefore, look forward to converting more of our mineral resources into ore reserves through infill drilling, continued testwork and process improvement, and enlarging our mining licence.”