PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Troy Resources has suspended operations in the Smarts 3 pit, at its Karouni operation, in Guyana, following a geotechnical event which resulted in a small failure of the northern wall of the pit.
Troy said that while no injuries or damages were reported as a result of the wall failure, the decision was taken to suspend and defer mining in the pit pending a review from geotechnical consultants, which is expected to take place later this week.
Mining from the Hicks 1, Hicks 2 and Smarts 4 pits continues unabated.
The ASX-listed company noted that the failed section at the Smarts 3 pit formed part of a planned pit cut-back, which was scheduled to start in January on the completion of the current mining campaign.
While the slip would have no impact on ore reserves in the pit, the life-of-mine or the mine costs, it would have an impact on the short- and medium-term mining schedule.
The reschedule of mining is now under way to, as much as possible, mitigate any short-term ore production impact, Troy said.
Meanwhile, the mill will continue to operate at full capacity for the remainder of the December quarter and the March quarter, with ore stockpiles on the run-of-mine currently exceeding 200 000 t.
However, Troy noted that with the Smarts 3 pit contributing slightly higher-grade ore than the other sources, the average grade to be processed during the upcoming quarters will be slightly lower than budgeted, meaning gold production in the December quarter would be slightly less than previously budgeted.