PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Troy Resources on Friday downwardly revised gold production expectations for the September quarter, on the back of heavy rainfall at its Karouni project, in Guyana.
The company had previously estimated that gold production for the September quarter would reach between 26 000 oz and 28 000 oz, however, after experiencing the heaviest wet season since taking ownership of Karouni in 2013, Troy has now downgraded production expectations for the quarter to 24 000 oz.
The ASX-listed company noted that rainfall occurred for a total of 51 days during July and August this year, with the highest one-day rainfall measured at 69 mm.
As a result, access to the Smarts 3 ore was denied for considerable periods owing to the need to pump out pooled water and deal with the unstable ground conditions.
Gold production in July and August reached 2 700 oz and 2 965 oz respectively, while production for the month of September is expected to be about 3 000 oz, taking the quarter's output to an estimated 8 665 oz.
“Operating through the wet season this year was difficult. This, unavoidably, has had an adverse impact on production for the start of the financial year,” said Troy MD Ken Nilsson.
“To me, what is far more important is that with Hicks 1 extension and Ohio Creek, we will hopefully soon again have multiple ore sources from which to draw mill feed.”
The miner told shareholders that the financial impact of gold production underperformance for the September quarter would likely be significantly mitigated by both the higher spot gold price as well as the fact that, with various activities curtained due to the weather conditions, operating costs should be less than would otherwise have been the case.