VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Junior Canadian mineral processing company Inca One Gold has nearly doubled its gold output in Peru, despite dealing with a particularly harsh rainy season that has left its mark on the country’s economy.
TSX-V-listed Inca One’s main asset is its Chala One gold milling facility, in Peru, servicing government-permitted, small-scale miners. The company declared commercial production at the facility in March 2015.
During the height of the Peruvian rainy season, lasting from February through to April, the company managed to increase ore purchases more than 117% over the same three-month period in 2016.
Inca One achieved an average throughput of 57 t/d, an increase of 88% over the comparable three-month period in 2016, while gold output at Chala One reached 2 290 oz, an increase of 91% from the comparable February, March and April period of 2016.
"Despite the unusual weather challenges, mineral buying and production increased early in 2017. In fact, we reached all-time company highs for these months, compared with rainy seasons in previous years,” president and CEO Edward Kelly said in a statement.
The company expects that mineral supply and gold production for Chala One will accelerate as the rainy season has ended, resulting in higher levels of output for the remaining months of 2017.
Peru's small-scale mining sector accounts for a significant portion of all Peruvian gold production, contributing an estimated $3-billion a year to the economy. Peru is the sixth-largest gold producer in the world.
The positive performance buoyed the company’s stock on Wednesday, rising 4.17% to C$0.12 a share.