Photo by: Bloomberg
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Ontario-focused gold producer St Andrew Goldfields (SAS) this week reported strong results from its three mines in the world-famous Abitibi greenstone belt of Ontario, placing it well on its way to achieve full-year guidance of between 75 000 oz and 85 000 oz.
SAS, which operates the Holt, Holloway and Hislop mines in the Timmins mining district of north-eastern Ontario, produced 22 505 oz of gold during the three months ended June 30.
SAS president and CEO Duncan Middlemiss said, year to date, the company had produced just under 47 000 oz of gold, with the focus in future falling on continued cost reduction and increasing margins.
The Holt operation produced 15 140 oz of gold derived from Zone 4 on the 925-m-level and 1 075-m-level mining areas and Zone 6 on the 775 m level. The head grade was 4.7 g/t gold and mill recoveries averaged about 94%, in line with expectations.
The Holloway mine produced 4 893 oz of gold from the Smoke Deep zone. The head grade was 4.09 g/t gold and mill recovery averaged 91%, slightly below expectations. SAS reported encouraging diamond drill results, confirming the continuation of the zone below the 925 m sublevel and along strike to the east.
The Hislop mine produced 2 472 oz of gold in the quarter. The head grade averaged 2.14 g/t gold, which was slightly above the 2.05 g/t gold reserve grade for the mine. Mill recovery for Hislop during the period averaged about 75%, owing to processing a significant amount of ore containing a fine-gold size fraction. Operations stopped at the beginning of the quarter as the reserves in the West pit were depleted.