NT trade5 Jun 2019 13:17
I sense news update coming hopefully any day before end of June:
“Mine output remains very steady, with performance very much in line with 2018. The plant continued to perform very well during the quarter, processing over 43,000 tonnes of hard rock ore with mill feed grades of 7.69g/t being 8% higher than the 2018 average.
“Development and production of the Palito orebody remains focussed on the Pipocas, Senna, Zonta and Mogno veins, whilst lateral ore development of the Sao Chico orebody is now being advanced on both the -19mRL and the -33mRL levels.
“We remain focussed on improving efficiencies and growing production especially in light of the exciting potential that the 2018 exploration results have identified, in particular around the Sao Chico deposit. Whilst to expand production we could look to simply add additional milling capacity, the old adage ‘tonnes cost, grade pays’ is an expression we live by. Therefore, the first step to producing more ounces out of our existing infrastructure is the installation of an ore sorter, which will help screen out waste rock from crushed mill feed ahead of the plant, improving grade and therefore ounces. I am pleased to report that the ore sorter is now in transit to Brazil and will be commissioned in the second half of the year. Whilst we are not forecasting production benefits from the ore sorter in 2019, we are planning for its impact to be significant in 2020.
“I also previously advised that to improve gold production we took delivery towards the end of 2018 of a ‘scrubber’, an item of equipment that will allow us to feed and process, more easily, the stockpile of historic flotation tailings. This equipment has now been commissioned and after some minor adjustments, we should begin to realise the full benefits in this second quarter.
“Whilst the operational performance of the quarter has been noteworthy, the other significant news for the Company was the 37 per percent increase in the total geological resource at Coringa. Following the exploration drilling campaign that was started in the fourth quarter of 2018, total mineral resources now exceed 500,000 ounces at over 7.0 g/t of gold, a substantial improvement on the previous estimate of 370,000 ounces issued in May 2017. Following on from this updated geological resource modelling, we are preparing a Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”), the results of which the Company expects to announce before the end of June 2019.
“In parallel, we are continuing to progress the permitting of the Coringa project. Following the award of the trial mining licence for the project during the second quarter of 2018, we have cleared the surface areas to expose the initial mine portal and are awaiting the award of blasting licenses to begin underground development.
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