TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Gold producing junior Anaconda Mining has sold 3 266 oz of gold during the third quarter of the company’s 2016 financial year, generating C$4.98-million in revenue at an average realised price of C$1 527/oz, the company reported on Monday.

For the three months ended February 29, the Pine Cove mill operated for 88 days at an availability rate of 98%, compared with 92% in the third quarter of the 2015 financial year. For the quarter, the mill processed 91 370 dry tonnes of ore, an increase of 5% compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

The average head grade was 1.48 g/t and overall mill recovery was 81%. The mill's run rate for the quarter was 1 038 t per operating day.

Meanwhile, the company started processing 15 167 t of ore from the Stog'er Tight deposit at an average grade of 1.66 g/t, producing 638 oz of gold. For this initial tonnage, Anaconda did not experience any material differences in processing the Stog'er Tight ore compared with the Pine Cove ore.

About three years of mining remained at the Pine Cove pit, which would be supplemented by five to six more years of production from the nearby Stog’er Tight deposit.

Anaconda advised that mill throughput per operating day and recovery were lower than normal during the third quarter owing to mechanical issues with the regrind mill, which ensured the proper feed size of the ore before leaching.

In the early part of the quarter, throughput at the primary ball mill was reduced to get a finer grind than usual at that stage to compensate for the loss of the regrind mill. The company then implemented a contingency plan where it replaced the regrind mill with a stirred media detritor (SMD).

The commissioning of the SMD still required a slightly finer product from the primary ball mill (thus, hindering throughput) to manage the requisite product size from the SMD.

Owing to the inconsistent grind size going into the leaching circuit, recovery suffered during the quarter. By the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter, Anaconda started to optimise the new system and return to normal throughput and recovery levels. The company expected the repairs to the regrind mill to be completed by the end of April, at which time it planned to switch from the SMD back to the original regrind mill.