Labour problems cause delays for Avocet

Gold miner Avocet Mining reported better-than-expected drilling results from its flagship Inata gold mine in Burkina Faso, but revealed that its drilling programme was not completed following a labour dispute with employees.The "large volume of significant results" received so far indicates the Mineral Resource of 2.12m ounces announced on 12 April will continue to expand, the group said."At the time of announcing the programme, the Company set a target to "double the reserves" from the original Mineral Reserves at Inata of 944,000 ounces stated by Wega Mining, and has made good progress toward achieving that goal," Avocet said."Inata continues to return significant drilling results that show it is a much larger gold deposit than the current Mineral Resource and Reserve suggest," said chief executive Brett Richards.However, recent labour unrest - which the company labelled as an "illegal labour unrest" on 13 May - led to the early termination of drilling, which will defer Avocet's ability to realise the goal (of doubling the reserves) until a further 9,000m of deeper drill holes are completed."We are confident of achieving the goal of doubling the Mineral Reserves; however the final resource and reserve upgrade will be delayed due to the early termination of the drilling programme caused by the labour unrest leading up to the wet season," he said. Shares were trading 1.8% down at 176p as of 13:36 on Monday afternoon.---BC