LSE- and TSX-V-listed gold miner PureGold Mining has appointed director and seasoned mining engineer Troy Fierro president and CEO and business development VP Chris Haubrich as CFO.

Fierro will succeed Darin Labrenz and Haubrich Sean Tetzlaff.

Labrenz will also vacate his position on the board. Although Tetzlaff will no longer be in an executive role, he will continue to provide support as needed in an advisory capacity.

The company has also promoted corporate controller Ashley Kates to the position of finance and corporate secretary, with all three changes effective as of January 1.

Chairperson Graeme Currie thanks Labrenz and Tetzlaff for their dedication, commitment and hard work dating back to the inception of the company. “Due in large part to their focused efforts, the PureGold mine transitioned in just six years from a pre-resource stage asset through construction toward a commercial operation, which today is one of only two operating mines in the re-emergent Red Lake district.”

“We wish both Darin and Sean the very best in all their future endeavours,” he adds.

Fierro says the leadership changes are consistent with PureGold’s transition to a culture of “operational excellence”.

“Chris, Ashley and I each bring our own unique combination of leadership skills and operational experience and I am excited for us to work together in our new roles,” he says.

In addition to Haubrich and Kates, Fierro says he is “delighted” to work more closely with mining GM and director Maryse Bélanger, who has been driving operational improvements at the mine site for the past two months following her appointment in November.

“Together, this revitalised leadership group is ideally suited to steer the company through full ramp-up and execute our vision of building a multi-generational Canadian gold mining company rooted in the heart of Red Lake,” says Fierro.

Bélanger says the PureGold mine is a high-grade deposit in a strategic location with “exciting exploration potential” that was advanced rapidly from exploration through to commercial production at a time when few other mines were being built.

“It is an incredible achievement, especially during a pandemic. Today we have a fully built mine site with an 800 t/d mill currently achieving 95% recoveries which can operate at 125% of nameplate capacity. Despite that success, much work remains to unlock the mine’s full potential,” she says.

Bélanger adds that she has been immersed in all facets of the operation with the goal of getting the mine profitable in the near term and ensuring that the culture is one that fosters operational excellence for the long term. “Given the changes under way, I am confident that we will be successful going forward.”

MINING IMPROVEMENTS

PureGold reports that its mined grades have been reconciling well with the mineral reserve for stopes within the mineral reserve envelope to date.

However, the miner also notes that the key challenge to date has been maintaining access to enough high-confidence, high-grade stopes to provide high-grade ore to the mill.

In this regard, shortages of high-grade ore at various times have led to blending of low-grade development material and stockpiles, which has reduced the overall feed grade to the mill.

These shortages were caused by a combination of factors including development delays, insufficient scheduling flexibility, insufficient geologic information available for stopes prior to mining, equipment downtime and strategic misalignments.

Significant changes to mine planning and scheduling were implemented during the fourth quarter of 2021 to address these underlying causes, with early signs of positive progress evident in December’s operating results.

These changes include reorganisation of information and workflow structures, resulting in enhanced accountability and reduced assay turnaround times.

In addition, definition drilling activity has been expanded, which will provide mine planners with better information in a timely manner, which PureGold reports will result in improved stope designs and enhanced scheduling flexibility.

Further, a geologic confidence-based model was implemented to standardise decision-making and improve mine scheduling and planning.

Together, PureGold says these changes are expected to drive sustainable increases in both ore throughput and head grade, but it will require more time to fully implement.

As such, in December, the PureGold Mine averaged 662 t/d of ore milled at a grade of 6.1 g/t, with 96% recovery for 3 905 oz of gold produced.

As for the last three weeks of December, the PureGold mine averaged an estimated 760 t/d of ore milled at a grade of 6.6 g/t with 96% recovery for an estimated 3 232 oz of gold produced.

Both represent gold production records over those respective time periods for the company.

Going forward, the mine is targeting production in the range of between 600 t/d and 700 t/d (60% to 70% of mill capacity) for the first quarter of this year and will ramp up gradually from there as access to high-confidence, high-grade stopes increases.

Average head grades are expected to initially be in the range of 5 g/t to 7 g/t and are also expected to increase steadily as the growing drilled inventory facilitates better stope scheduling and increasing stope access allows for increased ore mining rates on a sustained basis.