PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner St Barbara has reported a steady quarter of production in the three months to June, despite its Simberi operation, in Papua New Guinea, being shut down for nearly half the quarter following a fatality in May.

Group gold production in the June quarter reached 82 698 oz, compared with the 82 303 oz produced in the March quarter.

Production at the Simberi operation declined to 10 824 oz during the quarter, from the 18 981 oz produced in the previous quarter, while production from Leonora increased from 42 716 oz to 45 157 oz in the same period, and at the Atlantic operations from 20 606 oz to 26 718 oz.

All-in sustaining costs for the June quarter were down 2% on the previous quarter, to A$1 623/oz, largely as a result of increased gold production at Atlantic.

“All our operations rose to the challenges posed by the second year of the global Covid-19 pandemic and a difficult operating environment with rolling border closures causing additional challenges,” said MD and CEO Craig Jetson.

For the full year, St Barbara has set a consolidated production target of between 305 000 oz and 355 000 oz, at an all-in sustaining cost of between A$1 710/oz and A$1 860/oz, with Simberi expected to contribute between 60 000 oz and 70 000 oz of this production.

The Atlantic operation is expected to contribute between 65 000 oz and 85 000 oz, while the Leonora operation will contribute the lion’s share of between 180 000 oz and 200 000 oz.

St Barbara in June this year released the Leonora province plan, which added some 1.4-million ounces to its existing 5-million ounces of gold in mineral resources.

The three-stage strategy of growing sustainable production at lower cost profile to deliver superior returns to shareholders remains on track. In early July, St Barbara acquired a 19.8% equity position in Kin Minerals, which has 1.2-million ounces of gold resources near St Barbara’s Leonora operations and has exploration upside potential.