JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – With over 10 200 oz of gold produced at Brazil-focused gold mining and development company Serabi Gold’s wholly owned Palito and Sao Chico gold operations, in northern Brazil’s Tapajos region of Para state, the three months ended September 30 comprised the company’s best quarter since the start of operations. 

“We have already produced more than 30 000 oz in the current year and, barring any unforeseen circumstances, remain comfortably on target to exceed our original production guidance by year-end,” says CEO Mike Hodgson.

In the period under review, the company processed 42 464 t of hard-rock run-of-mine (RoM) ore from the Palito and Sao Chico mines, seeing an average grade of 8.08 g/t of gold. 

The total mined ore for the same period was 43 133 t, which had an average grade of 9.61 g/t of gold. In addition to the RoM ore, another 2 174 t of flotation tailings with a grade of 4.1 g/t of gold was processed through the cyanidation plant.

As at September 30, there were coarse ore stocks of 11 000 t with an average grade of 3.30 g/t of gold and 25 000 t of flotation tails, with an average grade of 2.5 g/t gold.

The company noted that the plant expansion completed in the last quarter, with mill number three now operational, provided sufficient incremental capacity to process most of this stockpiled material during the remainder of 2016.     

About 1 600 m of horizontal development was completed during the third quarter at Palito mine, of which 972 m was represented by ore development, while the balance comprising the development of ramps, cross cuts and stope preparation. 

At Sao Chico mine, 1 042 m of horizontal development was completed, of which 494 m represented ore development, with much of the balance comprising ramp development and cross cuts, reflecting the ongoing deepening of the mine.
 
Mine production from Sao Chico comprised 11 217 t of ore extracted, at a grade of 9.88 g/t gold. This was an increase in tonnage, reflecting an increasing proportion of ore being generated from stoping, as opposed to development. 

Hodgson noted that, at Palito, the underground operation continued to perform well, with mined grades for the quarter averaging over 9.5 g/t of gold.   

Ore is now being sourced from four sectors – Senna, Chico da Santa, G3 and Pipocas – with Senna in particular providing “some very encouraging results”.

"We started mine site exploration programmes at both sites. At Sao Chico, we are investigating the potential strike extensions of the Sao Chico main vein to the east and west. Having recently completed the acquisition of the surrounding exploration licences and secured land access, we are now able to undertake this work, the first stage of which involves a ground geophysics-induced polarisation survey,” said Hodgson.

He added that, at Palito, new exploration activity was also under way. 

Since 2012, Serabi set aside exploration work while it concentrated on getting the operation under way and performing well. 

“However, during the last quarter, we have undertaken a programme of ‘down-the-hole’ electromagnetic geophysics, testing some 19 holes drilled into the three mine site discoveries made in 2012,” noted Hodgson. 

He added that this technique was an excellent tool for better targeting sulphide-rich zones that were usually gold bearing. This, in turn, enabled the company to better define a follow-up drilling programme that would be undertaken during 2017.

"The results of our geophysics are not available as yet, but I look forward to providing an update shortly," he concluded.