Canadian intermediate gold miner Detour Gold expects to produce between 570 000 oz and 605 000 oz of gold in 2019, the company announced on Tuesday, stating that the guidance was in line with the Detour Lake operation’s life-of-mine (LoM) plan released in June last year.
Newly appointed interim CEO Bill Williams said in a statement that the company continued to build on the momentum of the operational initiatives that COO Frazer Bourchier had put in place last year.
The LoM plan calls for about 115-million tonnes to be mined from the Detour Lake pit in 2019. Mill throughput is expected to range between 21.5-million to 22-million tonnes for 2019, at a head grade ranging between 0.90 g/t to 1 g/t. Mill recoveries are expected to range between 90.5% and 91.5%.
Total cash cost will range between $790/oz and $840/oz and the all-in sustaining cost will be between $1 175/oz and $1 250/oz.
This year’s production will be lower than the 621 128 oz that Detour Lake delivered in 2018.
Further, Detour estimates that capital expenditure will range between $190-million and $210-million.
The company has budgeted about $5-million for exploration to complete 2 500 m of drilling on the north-east and western extensions of Zone 58N. It plans to complete an internal scoping study this year to assess the viability of pursuing an underground exploration and bulk sampling programme.