LONDON (Alliance News) - GoldBridges Resources PLC said Tuesday that gold production during the fourth quarter increased by 53% in comparison to the previous year at its wholly-owned Sekisovskoye mine.
The gold mining and development company said in an operational update for the mine for the quarter to December 31 2013 and the full-year, that gold production has increased at good levels and ahead of expectations.
For the fourth quarter, GoldBridges said 8,836 ounces of gold was produced at the Sekisovskoye mine, up 53% on the same quarter last year.
On a full-year basis, the results were similarly encouraging, with GoldBridges producing 30,670 ounces of gold, up 37% on last years' production and 12% above its production guidance for 2013.
The company also said that recovery rates increased. For the fourth quarter the gold recovery rate was 85.3%, up from 83.7% for the period last year, and reached 84.3% for the full-year. GoldBridges attributes these improvements to upgraded processes to its gold processing plant during quarter three.
During the quarter the company processed 182,689 tonnes of ore, up 34% on the comparable quarter in 2012 of 136,253 tonnes. For the full-year, GoldBridges said the volume of ore milled increased to 701,361 tonnes, up 12% on the 628,731 tonnes recorded in 2012. Also of note, the firm said that tonnage milled in seasonally low Q4 2013 was only 3.6% lower than the tonnage milled in Q3 2013 of 189,568 tonnes, which is a direct benefit of underground mining as it is not impacted by harsh Kazakh winter conditions, said GoldBridges.
Average plant feed grade also improved, up to 1.76 grams per tonne for the quarter from 1.58 g/t during the comparable period last year, due to increased volume of higher grade underground ore, said the firm.
During the period, GoldBridges successfully sued Akmola Gold for USD2 million, the amount it had previously advanced the firm after the termination its proposed acquisition of Akmola Gold.
Maxim Strelnikov, COO of GoldBridges Global Resources said, "We set an ambitious production goal for ourselves in 2013, and I am very proud that our team has delivered strong production growth of 37 per cent this year, 12 per cent above our guidance. We expect strong gold production growth to continue in 2014."
Shares in GoldBridges were trading up 2.78% at 1.9015 pence per share Tuesday morning, one of the biggest gainers on AIM.
By Alice Attwood; aliceattwood@alliancenews.com; @AliceAtAlliance
Copyright © 2014 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
