PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Saracen Mineral Holdings on Thursday told shareholders that ongoing drill results had derisked and potentially extended the current five-year outlook at its Carosue Dam operations, in Western Australia.
The five-year plan would see production steadily increase from 150 000 oz/y to 170 000 oz/y through an organic pipeline of projects and a disciplined approach to project execution. All new mines at Carosue Dam would be funded internally from the mine’s operating cash flow.
The pipeline of underground and openpit projects would be systematically ranked, evaluated and derisked for further optimisation in and beyond the five-year plan. Large, low-grade stockpiles would also be formed to be used to top up production to take advantage of excess mill capacity or alternatively use this capacity for ore purchase agreements if it delivered superior cash flows.
During October and November, Carosue Dam delivered an estimated 29 000 oz of gold, allowing Saracen to maintain its full 2016 production outlook of between 150 000 oz and 160 000 oz.
Some 24 249 oz of gold was mined from the two underground operations, Karari and Red October, with Saracen reporting that the Karari mine was cash flow positive after only ten months.
Meanwhile, the Deep South project started in the December quarter, as planned, and first ore was expected from the March quarter.
Deep South and Red October would operate as one mine with a shared fixed cost base, which was expected to further reduce all-in sustaining costs.