Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Metals miner Sumatra Copper & Gold has temporarily suspended openpit mining activities at its Tembang gold/silver project, in Indonesia.
The company said on Friday that with the Berenai openpit mine scheduled to be completed during June, the majority of the remaining openpit reserves were contained within the lower grade Asmar orebody.
However, under the current cost structures and the prevailing gold price, the Asmar orebody was only marginally profitable.
Sumatra has previously reported that Tembang would be linked to the State-owned electricity grid later this year, which would reduce power changes, with savings to be made on processing costs, underground mining costs and administration.
The lower processing costs and a new openpit mining arrangement would allow the Asmar pit to be reoptimised at a lower cutoff grade, which would potentially allow the significant inferred resource at Asmar to be targeted for conversion to reserves.
Sumatra would now terminate the current openpit equipment hire contract, and was planning to restart mining operations in the fourth quarter of this year with a lower cost, bulk mining arrangement.
“While there will be a short-term loss in production, our decision to temporarily suspend openpit mining will significantly improve the profitability of the Asmar orebody and secure the near term future of the operation,” said Sumatra CEO Rob Gregory.
The company has lowered its 2018 production guidance from between 45 000 oz and 55 000 oz, to between 37 500 oz and 42 500 oz.