JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Western Australia-focused gold mining company Intermin Resources has started hauling the first ore from Stage 2 operations at its Teal gold mine, north-west of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, to a nearby processing plant, the ASX-listed company reported on Wednesday.
Stage 2 operations started in September and are being conducted concurrently with Stage 1 to recover about 20 000 oz at a grade of about 3 g/t by March 2018.
During the last quarter, mining operations at Teal have focused on removing waste overburden as part of the Teal Stage 2 cut back on the east wall. Thus far, 402 000 m3 has been mined with the first ore having been delivered to the nearby Lakewood one-million-ton-a-year toll milling facility.
This first processing campaign will start next week and will comprise about 24 000 t of material being processed, with an average grade predicted to be 4.1 g/t gold.
Toll milling at Lakewood will enable reconciled final grades to be measured against mine predicted grades, thereby providing more timely feedback for the operation.
Further, ore grade from the mine has continued to be in line with reserve model estimates at 3.2 g/t gold, with more than 11 000 oz mined and processed to date. Plant recovery has exceeded feasibility study estimates at 94%, to date.
Mining, hauling and processing of the remaining ore (75 000 t) is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2018. This ore has a grading of 3.2 g/t gold.
Mining and processing ore from both Teal Stages 1 and 2 enables Intermin to maintain its production guidance of between 18 000 oz and 20 000 oz, at all-inclusive costs of between A$1 000/oz and A$1 100/oz.
This guidance generates a net cash flow of about A$8-million to A$9-million for the project by March next year.
Intermin MD Jon Price said Teal continued to deliver to forecast grades and that its recoveries were exceeding expectations.