TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Having declared commercial production in June, Vancouver-based gold miner Goldsource Mines on Monday reported that it was gaining momentum at its flagship Eagle Mountain mine, in Guyana, where it had poured 145.2 oz of gold and sold 200.3 oz during the second quarter ended June 30. The company recorded an average realised price of $1 264/oz.
During the period, Eagle Mountain processed 48 098 t of ore, averaging 641 t/d, and, for 30 continuous days before June 20, processed an average of 916 t/d, near the Phase 1 boilerplate capacity of 1 000 t/d.
“The Eagle Mountain commissioning period and commercial production milestones in the first half of the year were a challenge on several levels with a tightly constrained initial capital requirement of $5.9-million, as budgeted in the preliminary economic assessment. With perseverance, our team was able to complete the Phase 1 ‘proof of concept’ project under the initial budget. All significant project risks have been minimised for moving forward to increased production, with anticipated positive cash flow in the second half of the year,” stated COO Eric Fier.
The estimated gravity recovery to concentrate averaged 47% for the second quarter, up from 40% in the first quarter.
Goldsource advised that the average grade had dropped, from 0.91 g/t to 0.37 g/t during the quarter, as planned, while the company was optimising the plant with lower-grade material. The company expected higher-grade material in the third quarter. According to Goldsource, the average estimated grade starting July was about 0.80 g/t gold, at a 0.0:1 strip ratio, transitioning to greater than 1 g/t gold in August.