TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Ontario-focused gold producer St Andrew Goldfields reported steady gold output during the third quarter from its three mines in the province, recording 25 434 oz of gold for the period.
New CEO Duncan Middlemiss said the combined performance of the Holt, Holloway and Hislop mines placed the company on track to achieve its production guidance of between 95 000 oz and 105 000 oz of the yellow metal in 2013.
"The production rate at Holt this quarter increased to 1 140 t/d as Holt continues to show potential for additional throughput in the near term. Mining at Hislop will transition to the West pit this quarter as the preparatory work has been completed,” Middlemiss said.
The Holt operation produced 16 807 oz of gold with about 90% of the production derived from Zone 4 and the remainder sourced from Zone 6 development. Production mining of the Zone 6 reserves would start in the fourth quarter as lateral development was suitably advanced.
The head grade during the quarter was 5.25 g/t gold, with higher-than-expected mill recoveries of 95%, mainly owing to sequencing of higher grade ore sources from the second quarter into the third quarter.
Holloway produced 4 662 oz of gold with the majority of production derived from the Smoke Deep zone. The mill recovery rate of about 90% was in line with the company's expectations.
Hislop produced 3 965 oz of gold in the period and the head grade averaged 2.27 g/t gold, with mill recoveries averaging 81%. The preparation work for the West pit had progressed and ore mining would transition to this pit in the fourth quarter.
St Andrew Goldfields is also progressing its advanced exploration Taylor project, 53 km east of Timmins, and in July recovered 686 oz of gold from processing a portion of a bulk sample.