PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Dual listed gold miner OceanaGold has reported a decline in both gold and copper production for the three months to September, on the back of difficult operational conditions at its Didipio mine, in the Philippines.

The miner was in October forced to suspend processing operations at Didipio owing to a dispute with the local government units.

Since the start of July, local government units from the province of Nueva Vizcaya have impeded access to and from the Didipio mine site, in response to a directive from the Governor to "restrain any operations" by OceanaGold.

Underground mining operations at Didipio were suspended in mid-July.

As a result of the difficult operating conditions, OceanaGold this week reported that gold production for the three months to September had declined to 107 500 oz, down from the 129 300 oz produced in the previous quarter, while copper production was down from 4 000 t to 2 300 t.

Gold sales for the quarter were also down from 125 600 oz to 94 300 oz, while no copper sales were recorded for the September quarter, as all trucking of supplies and concentrate were halted from the Didipio operation.

As a result, no gold or copper sales from Didipio was reported during the quarter, adversely affecting the financial results, OceanaGold president and CEO Mick Wilkes said.

Revenue for the quarter declined from $186-million to $133.6-million.

“Despite this impact, and with multiple mines in our portfolio, we ended the third quarter with approximately $56-million in cash, available liquidity of $106-million and a modest level of debt.”

Wilkes noted that the New Zealand operations continued to deliver to plan, while the Haile operation demonstrated another successive quarter of productivity improvements on nearly all operating measures.

“Some production from Haile has been deferred to the fourth quarter as we were delayed in accessing some high-grade ore at the bottom of the Snake pit. We expect continued operational improvement from Haile, and we are confident that we have the right team in place to deliver positive results over the long term,” Wilkes said.

OceanaGold previously lowered its full year production expectations to to between 460 000 oz and 480 000 oz of gold, along with 10 000 t to 11 000 t of copper.