Kingsrose reports strong gold, silver production at Talang Santo mine
Monday, July 31 2017 - 12:38 PM WIB
ASX-listed Kingsrose Mining Ltd said on Monday that total gold and silver production at the Talang Santo mine in South Sumatra during the quarter ending June of this year was 5,550 tons at 7.6 g/t Au and 21 g/t Ag.
The company said in a statement that the June quarter 2017 output was a 50 percent increase from the March 2017 quarter, and a 183 percent jump over the quarter ending December 2016. The company did not provide year-on-year comparison.
Kingsrose said total development ore tons were 2,259 tons with stope production providing 3,291 tons.
During the June quarter, the company sold 5,177 ounces of gold at an average gold price of A$1,671/oz (US$1,258) and realized A$8.65 milloin in revenue. The cash costs of production for the quarter were US$583/oz and all-in sustaining costs of production for the period were US$1,366/oz.
Mine dewatering for the quarter averaged 290 liters per second with little change from previous quarter. During the June quarter significant efforts continued to be directed towards decreasing the water ingress into the mine. A lined diversion was placed in a nearby river as a trial to attempt to reduce the amount of water that may be transferring from surface waterways to the underground by way of porous geological structures. ?To date this appears to have had little effect on water entering the underground mine and water continues to remain a challenge and impact production rates,? the company said.
The main area of capital development for Talang Santo underground mine was the commencement of the 6 Level internal access shaft. This was commenced in May 2017 and is expected to be completed October 2017. This will allow access to the ore panel between 6 Level and current mine base of 5 Level Sub 3.
Meanwhile, open cut activities at the Way Linggo Mine, also in South Sumatra commenced last quarter to recover the Measured Resource above the 1 Level of the Way Linggo underground mine. The open cut will recover the pillars and remnant ore that was unable to be mined with the mining methods previously used at the Way Linggo Mine. The open cut has been designed to mine the ore in a series of staged cutbacks to allow for the continual supply of ore.
Approval for mining of an initial trench cut was provided by Indonesian Mines Department in February 2017. Approval of the remainder of the open cut is under application while a study for a possible underground operation to further recover remaining ore pillars is completed. ?This process towards full approval is well under way and approval is expected during the September, 2017 quarter.?
The company said open cut mining at the Way Linggo Mine is expected to continue until late 2017 /early 2018, after having started in late February 2017. Material from the mining will be processed through to February 2018 or beyond depending upon supply from other ore sources.
The mining has been undertaken using a fleet of small equipment owned by the group, supplemented by some additional hired equipment which arrived on site in late May 2017. Mining is continuing according to plan with the open cut supplying the majority of the feed to the mill. Recovered gold ounces from the open cut operation to end June 2017 was in line with expectations.
A total of 82,161 bcm of waste and 16,938 tons of ore at 7.5g/t Au, 41.1 g/t Ag were mined from the Way Linggo open cut during the June 2017 quarter, the company said.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak