PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Pantoro has warned shareholders that production during the September quarter would be between 10 000 oz and 11 000 oz, compared with the 11 694 oz produced in the June quarter, as the Nicolsons underground mine, in Western Australia, experienced difficult operating conditions.

Pantoro on Tuesday said that the transition from long hole stoping to flat back and resue stoping was taking longer than anticipated, resulting in lower than scheduled gold production.

While the Nicolsons underground mine has reconciled well since the start of operations in 2015, a number of factors have contributed to lower gold production during the months of July and August this year.

Pantoro in the June quarter advised shareholders that it was transitioning stoping methods as dilution had adversely affected the grade achieved from some areas of the mine. With the issues experienced in the current quarter, a total of 3 255 oz of gold was produced in July, and a similar production was expected during August.

“While the short-term production issues at Nicolsons are disappointing, the mine has the required development in place to deliver the targeted production profile moving forward,” said MD Paul Cmrlec.

“We have seen very high grades developed in the Johnston lode to date, and stoping of those areas will provide a solid base for production. The stoping sequence using flat back and resue stoping in the Anderson and Hall lodes in the northern part of the mine is also now in place and will provide ongoing ore feed to the mill.”

Ore from the upper Johnston lode, combined with flat back stoping in the Hall and Anderson lodes, and development of the lower levels in the Johnston lode is expected to result in between 4 000 oz/m and 4 500 oz/m of gold production from the Nicolsons mine, from September onwards.

Cmrlec pointed out that Pantoro held the only commercial scale gold processing plant in the Halls Creek region, and the land package acquired during the past few years held excellent potential for discovery of multiple high-grade ore bodies to continue the growth of the project.

The benefit of the ore sorting will be fully realised once ore delivered from Wagtail and Nicolsons to the run-of-mine exceeds the mill capacity. With both mines operating, production is scheduled to reach an annual run rate of 80 000 oz in the first half of the next calendar year.