Aim- and TSX-listed Serabi Gold has set its 2019 production guidance at between 40 000 oz and 44 000 oz, with 3 671 oz already produced in January.

CEO Mike Hodgson said in a statement on Wednesday that the step up from the production levels achieved in 2017 and 2018 will be driven by improved efficiencies in both orebodies and the processing of about 40 000 t of flotation tails, grading 3 g/t gold, which will supplement the normal run-of-mine production.

The company has commissioned a scrubber, or independent trommel feed system, which was started on January 10, and has worked well, allowing the already milled tailings to be fed directly to the cyanidation plant, therefore not consuming valuable capacity in the milling section of the processing plant.

Serabi is awaiting an ore sorter that has been shipped to Brazil.

Meanwhile, Serabi is close to concluding a drill programme at its Coringa project, in Brazil, with a geological resource update and a preliminary economic assessment to be published in March and June, respectively.

“In light of recent events at Brumadinho in Minas Gerais state, in Brazil, I would like to give reassurance to our stakeholders regarding the tailings management facility at Palito. Serabi’s operations are all about quality not quantity, therefore, we mine and process almost insignificant volumes of rock relative to industrial mineral, iron-ore and bauxite operations such as Brumadinho. 

“New legislation has been introduced following the dam failure at Mariana, also in Minas Gerais, in 2015. This legislation has, however, been a rather ‘one size fits all’ approach, and as a result we do have a highly ‘over-engineered’ tailings facility and the annual audit of our tailings facilities, undertaken late last year by an accredited Brazilian geotechnical engineering expert, confirmed our tailings management facility to be in good order, and it remains fully licensed and certified,” Hodgson averred.

The company was expecting further tightening of legislation post Brumadinho, and earlier this week the government, through the National Mining Agency, moved to ban all upstream tailings dams. 

“Such a move would not affect the safety and legality of our tailings facility which, firstly, comprises small ponds, rather than dams and, secondly, is not upstream of any nearby population,” said Hodgson.