TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian palladium producer North American Palladium (NAP) on Thursday reported strong output from its Lac des Iles (LDI) mine, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, for the fourth quarter so far, prompting it to say it will reach its full-year guidance.
NAP on Thursday reported that output for October and November totalled 41 986 oz of payable palladium, and output since the start of the year stood at 156 409 oz, within a whisker of its original full-year guidance.
In the company’s third-quarter earnings call early last month, COO James Gallagher said that despite the company expecting a strong finish to the year, it expected to be at, or marginally below, the lower end of its guidance of 170 000 oz.
For October and November, the NAP had produced 41 986 payable ounces of palladium at a cash cost per ounce of $375. The mill started a trial full-time run on October 1, and production cost per tonne milled for the two months averaged $36. Year-to-date cash cost per ounce was $495 and production cost per tonne milled was $50.
Underground production from LDI continued to ramp up with daily mining rates averaging at 3 736 t in October, 4 216 t in November and 4 765 t to December 9. During this period, the company had exceeded daily production rates of 5 000 t/d on several occasions.
"Our payable palladium production for October and November was very strong, and our key cost metrics are significantly below our guidance. The trial full-time mill run initiated at the start of the fourth quarter is performing well and given the additional stockpiled ore processed, the per unit operating costs were in line with our expectations,” NAP president and CEO Phil du Toit said.
For the three months ended October, NAP reported output of 32 560 oz of palladium, down 17% quarter-on-quarter.