PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Tembang gold/silver project, in Indonesia, has delivered record production during October after ASX-listed Sumatra Copper & Gold implemented operational improvements.
The company told shareholders on Wednesday that the Tembang operation produced 3 379 oz of gold equivalent during October, comprising 2 924 oz of gold and 32 296 oz of silver.
On an annualised basis, the October gold equivalent production rate is around 40 000 oz of gold equivalent.
“The progress made by Rob Gregory, our new COO, and his team at Tembang since July has been outstanding in what has been a challenging period for the company,” said MD David Fowler.
Since his appointment, Gregory has been working on improving operations at Tembang, with Fowler saying on Wednesday that the higher production rate resulted principally from increased productivity and reduced dilution in the Belinau underground mine, which is the main driver of operational profitability.
A revised mining method was implemented at the underground operation, which resulted in more tonnes and higher ore grade. Mill recoveries also improved during October as the result of optimised feed blend and batch scheduling, allowing longer residence times within the process plant.
Fowler said that the results validated the proposed upgrade of the leach absorption circuit prior to the planned process plant use rate increasing to 100% during the first quarter of 2017.