LONDON (Alliance News) - Metals Exploration PLC said on Thursday its overall mining operations continued to improve in the third quarter, however ore production was restricted due to an error in the software used in mine scheduling.
For the quarter to the end of September, Metals Exploration sold 11,665 ounces at its Runruno gold-molybdenum project at an average realised price of USD1,333.32 an ounce in the Philippines, up from the second quarter's 7,557 ounces at USD1,216 an ounce.
The errors in scheduling led to an underestimation of the volume of waste to be stripped from above the orebody in Stage Two of the mine, leading to some ore positions expected to be mined during the second half of the quarter not being accessed.
With the software errors verified, the life of mine operations have now been rescheduled with the remainder of 2018 and 2019 completed. Full ore production is set to resume in December and be maintained throughout 2019.
Discussions with current lenders to restructure the group's debt facilities is still ongoing.
Shares in Metals Exploration were down 3.3% at 1.45 pence on Thursday.
Metals Exploration (MTL)