PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Doray Minerals is on track to reach its full year production guidance of between 80 000 oz and 85 000 oz of gold, with the company reporting a solid quarter of production during the three months to December.
Gold production in the December quarter reached 18 944 oz, along with 660 t of copper, compared with the record 19 683 oz of gold and 635 t of copper delivered in the September quarter.
“What has been particularly pleasing is that the quarter’s production was achieved alongside significant results from in-mine exploration activities as we work towards achieving Doray’s strategic objectives, which outline our pathway towards annual production of 100 000 oz of gold, extending Deflector’s mine to at least five years, and reducing all-in sustaining costs to less than A$1 000/oz,” said Doray MD Leigh Junk.
“The strong performance at Deflector has also allowed us to strengthen our balance sheet, giving us confidence that we will be able to repay all our outstanding debt before the end of this financial year, which will be a fantastic achievement.”
Doray is in the midst of a merger with fellow-listed Silver Lake Resources, under which Doray shareholders will receive 0.6772 Silver Lake shares for every Doray share held. The merged entity will be 62.7% held by Silver Lake shareholders, with the balance going towards Doray shareholders.
The merger will combine two high-grade gold operations, and will create a midtier company with a 2019 pro-forma production guidance of some 240 000 oz. The merged group will have a mineral resource base of 4.6-million ounces, with both the Deflector and Mount Monger operations offering a pipeline of in-mine and near-mine brownfield exploration targets.