Gold production by Guyana Goldfields Inc totalled 35,901 ounces last year and the Canadian firm is now in commercial production and hopes to produces at least 130 000 ounces of the precious mineral at its Aurora Gold Mine this year.
From October 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015, the company produced 35,723 ounces of gold, of which, 28,850 ounces were sold at an average realized price of US$1,079 per ounce generating approximately US$31.1 million in pre-tax revenue, a statement from the company yesterday said.
“I would like to thank the entire team on our significant milestone of achieving production guidance for 2015. We have successfully ramped up Aurora and the hard rock is processing nicely through the primary crusher. We look forward to the next few quarters and demonstrating continued production success to reinforce our successful ramp-up to full production,” Scott A. Caldwell, the President & CEO of the company was quoted as saying.
The company said during December, the mill processed an average of 4,758 tonnes of ore per day, of which in excess of 50% of the ore processed was composed of hard rock. Gold recoveries averaged 90.4%.
As a result of the 2015 mine and mill production rates, the Aurora Gold Mine has achieved commercial production effective January 1, 2016, the statement said.
From October 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015, the company mined a total of 483,135 tonnes of ore with 392,953 tonnes being fed to the mill.
The remainder were stored in the stockpile located near the mill. In addition, 1,004,335 tonnes of waste had been mined.
The statement said that total gold production guidance for 2016 is between 130,000 to 150,000 ounces of gold.
The company also says that it has on deposit with its lenders, an untouched US$27M overrun facility which is comprised of the company’s own restricted cash. The statement also said that GGI plans to issue an updated NI 43-101 Technical Report Feasibility Study for the Aurora Gold Mine in January which will reflect an extended open pit mining scenario while deferring the underground production until later in the mine life, as well as, updated cost parameters and reserves based on a US$1,000 per ounce gold price. Stabroek News reported earlier this week that gold declarations for 2015 amounted to 451,490 ounces, representing a 16.5% increase over 2014 figures with the two foreign large-scale gold companies that began operations in the latter half of the year being credited for the increase. The companies were Guyana Goldfields and Australian miner Troy Resources.
