Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold production at Silver Lake Resources has nearly halved during the quarter ended June, as the Murchison mine, in Western Australia, only processed stockpiles and the Maxwells openpit mine, at Mount Monger, wrapped up mining operations in June.
During the quarter under review, 181 756 t of ore was mined, resulting in gold production of 24 577 oz. This was compared with the 44 574 oz produced in the March quarter.
Ore mined during the full year ended June reached 1.96-million tonnes, resulting in contained gold of 180 862 oz.
Silver Lake reported on Friday that processing of surface ore stockpiles at the Murchison operations were completed during July, and all gold in circuit would be recovered by the end of the month, when the operation would be placed on full care-and-maintenance.
At the Mount Monger operations, production at the Maxwells openpit mine was completed during the quarter, with the project delivering 8 174 oz of gold. The Daisy complex delivered production in line with the previous quarter, while production from the Cock-eyed Bob deposit reflected ore development on the peripheries of the orebody and extraction of low-grade stoping panels, prior to the mining of higher grade stoping panels.
Production from the Wombola Dam openpit operation, also at Mount Monger, was expected to start late in September, and Silver Lake noted that evaluations were in progress for the Rumbles deposit, as an openpit mine, and for an underground operation at Maxwells.
For the full 2015, Silver Lake expected gold production to be between 125 000 oz and 135 000 oz.
Meanwhile, gold sales during the quarter reached 43 886 oz, at an average realised price of A$1 435/oz, to generate a revenue of A$63-million. For the full year, gold sales reached 217 349 oz.