The Kisladag operation in Turkey.
Canada-headquartered Eldorado Gold has resumed operations at Kisladag in line with an announcement earlier this year that it will drop a milling project at the Turkey-based mine in favour of heap leaching.
The decision, communicated in January, followed improved heap leach recoveries and a revised heap leaching plan.
Eldorado said on Tuesday that further testwork was under way to determine the effects of a 250-day leach cycles on deeper material, the results of which were expected to be available in late 2019 or early 2020.
The group is forecasting production of between 145 000 oz to 165 000 oz at a cash cost of $570/oz to $620/oz, increasing in 2020 to 240 000 oz to 260 000 oz.
Kisladag and the new Lamaque mine, in Canada, are key contributors to Eldorado’s guidance of producing more than half a million ounces in 2020. The miner declared commercial production at Lamaque on Monday.
The company grew its production to 349 147 oz of gold in 2018, from 292 971 oz in 2017. Its guidance for 2019 is to produce between 390 000 oz and 420 000 oz.