Photo by: Duane Daws
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Ontario miner St Andrew Goldfields (SAS) on Wednesday reported third-quarter output of 21 166 oz of gold from its Holt, Holloway and Hislop mines, located in the Abitibi greenstone belt.
Despite production in the quarter ended September 30 being off almost 6% quarter-on-quarter, the Toronto-listed company said the period’s output placed it on track to meet its increased full-year guidance of 85 000 oz to 95 000 oz of gold.
“The contribution from the recently discovered, down plunge trend of the Smoke Deep zone at the Holloway mine has certainly encouraged mine exploration efforts. Additionally, the Holt mine continues to provide the company with reliable lower-cost production and this trend is likely to endure well into the future,” SAS president and CEO Duncan Middlemiss said in a statement.
During the three months, Holt produced 15 087 oz of gold derived from Zone 4 on the 925 m level and the 1 075 m level mining areas and Zone 6 on the 775 m level. The head grade was 4.82 g/t gold and mill recoveries averaged 95%, both in line with expectations.
At the Holloway mine, SAS recorded 5 999 oz of gold from the Smoke Deep zone. The head grade of 4.27 g/t gold and mill recovery rate of about 92% were both in line with expectations. Diamond drilling in this zone continued to garner positive results. Developing Smoke Deep at depth continued during the quarter, reaching the 945 m sublevel.
At the now-retired Hislop mine, SAS recorded output of 80 oz of gold in the quarter, from processing 1 747 t of the remaining ore stockpile at the Holt mill, which had an average grade of 1.76 g/t gold. Operations ceased at Hislop early in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, SAS processed 34 981 t from toll mill operations at the Holt mill, with revenue generated from these agreements expected to have a positive impact on the overall processing costs for the quarter.
Further, the company was focused on an advanced exploration programme at its Taylor project, which was positioned to extract a 21 000 t bulk sample in the fourth quarter.
Underground exploration activities continued and 601 m of lateral development and 44 m of vertical development had been completed during the third quarter.