LONDON (Alliance News) - Serabi Gold PLC saw shares jump Tuesday despite gold production in 2014 falling short of the company's full year target, but said the shortfall is to be quickly recovered during 2015.
Serabi shares were up 17.9% to 5.01 pence per share on Tuesday morning.
Total gold production during 2014 totalled 18,452 ounces of gold, significantly below the company's guidance of 23,000 to 24,000 ounces. Serabi failed to hit its production target after around 4,000 ounces worth of flotation tailings were unable to be processed in 2014 whilst the carbon in pulp plant was being built and commissioned.
The plant is now fully operational, achieving recovery grades in excess of 90%. Serabi will be processing an accumulated stockpile of 55,000 tonnes of flotation tails over the next six to eight months, where it hopes to make up the shortfall in production during 2014.
In 2015, the company is expecting production to reach around 35,000 ounces of gold, it said.
Of total production in 2014, 76,500 tonnes of ore was mined containing 24,400 ounces of gold from the Palito mine. Not all of the contained gold was processed, which is why Serabi missed its production target by around 4,000 to 6,000 ounces.
The mill at the Palito mine produce 85,987 tonnes of ore at 8.84 grammes of gold per tonne during 2014.
The 55,000 tonne surface stockpile is at an average grade of 2.25 grammes of gold per tonne and processing began just before the end of 2014, said the company. Serabi also has an additional 15,000 tonne stockpile with a higher grade of 5 grammes of gold per tonne.
At the Sao Chico mine, the company has intersected the first ore zones and began collecting a small ore stockpile, which will be processed in the second quarter of 2015 once the stockpile from Palito has been reduced.
"With 18,452 ounces of gold produced in 2014, including over 10,000 ounces in the last four months, we expect 2015 to be a good year for Serabi," said Chief Executive Mike Hodgson.
By Joshua Warner; joshuawarner@alliancenews.com; @JoshAlliance
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Serabi (SRB)