TSX-listed RNC Minerals, which recently discovered the high-grade Father’s Day Vein at its Beta Hunt mine, in Australia, has reported a major increase in third-quarter production, with output hitting a record 31 360 mined ounces.
This represents a 199% increase on the third quarter of 2017, and a 135% increase against the second quarter of 2018.
A large increase in high-grade specimen and coarse gold production led to a significant increase in mined grade for the quarter to 6.67 g/t, compared with 2.24 g/t in the third quarter of 2017.
“Clearly, the highlight of the third quarter was the significant high-grade gold discovery at the Beta Hunt mine. As a result of the Father's Day Vein discovery, the company will be in a substantial net cash position to fully fund our upcoming activities,” said RNC CEO Mark Selby.
Meanwhile, Selby also announced the final gold content estimates for the large specimen stones discovered during the quarter.
The "King Henry" specimen stone, at 1 402 oz, would rank amongst the largest gold specimens in existence. “With multiple large scale and spectacular specimens coming from a single area, we believe the Father's Day Vein may rank among the richest and most prolific gold veins ever found."
The company has recently recovered the "Golden Rose" slab at the Father’s Day Vein. RNC reported that on-site personnel could not weigh the slab as its weight exceeded the maximum weight of the site scales.
RNC now expects 27 000 oz to 30 000 oz of gold from the immediate Father's Day Vein area and substantially more than 35 000 oz from the 540 m of A Zone sediment structures identified to date.