TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Timmins gold camp-focused Lake Shore Gold on Tuesday announced record full-year and fourth-quarter output from its Timmins West and Bell Creek mines, meeting the top end of its 2013 production guidance.

For the full year, gold output totalled 134 600 oz, an increase of 57% from the 85 800 oz produced in 2012, and at the top end of the company's 2013 guidance of 120 000 oz to 135 000 oz.

A total of 952 700 t was processed during the year at an average grade of 4.6 g/t. Mill recoveries for the year averaged 95.8%. Gold poured totalled 129 600 oz and gold sales topped 135 550 oz, at an average price of $1 377/oz.

For the fourth quarter ended December 31, Lake Shore reported output of 51 700 oz of gold, more than double the 23 700 oz produced in the same quarter in 2012 and 68% greater than the previous quarterly record of 30 800 oz that was achieved in the second quarter of 2013.

Output was boosted this year after the company completed a mill expansion, which increased milling capacity by 50% from 2 000 t/d to more than 3 000 t/d.

The company, which owns three multimillion-ounce gold complexes in the century-old Timmins gold camp, in Northern Ontario, said that mill throughput during the fourth quarter totalled 321 800 t, or 3 500 t/d, at an average grade of 5.2 g/t, with average mill recoveries of 96.3%. Total gold poured for the fourth quarter was 51 400 oz, while gold sales totalled 49 600 oz at an average price of $1 261/oz.

Production during December totalled 17 500 oz, which resulted from processing 109 000 t, or 3 520 t/d, at an average grade of 5.2 g/t. Gold poured during the month totalled 17 000 oz.

"We achieved a major milestone in the fourth quarter of 2013, posting our first-ever quarter of net free cash flow. Cash and bullion at December 31, totalled about $34-million, compared to $15.2-million at the end of September.

“After several years of effective development, construction and investment, it is extremely gratifying to see our operations meeting our targets and generating cash,” Lake Shore president and CEO Tony Makuch said.

The company aims to produce 160 000 oz to 180 000 oz of gold in 2014, which would help it reduce debt levels and continue to generate net free cash flow at current gold prices.