Mill trouble sees production dip below guidance at Beacon Minerals’ Jaurdi gold project in latest quarter

Lost milling time and a lack of access to high-grade ore has seen gold production at Beacon Minerals’ Jaurdi project dip below guidance in the latest quarter. Beacon told the Australian Securities Exchange on Wednesday the Jaurdi mill north-west of Coolgardie produced 6183 ounces of gold in the March quarter. This was down on the 6861oz churned out during the September quarter, but better than the 5230oz produced in the September quarter. However, the company advised the latest result was below its guidance of 7000oz-8000oz, and said a premature liner failure during a SAG mill reline increased a scheduled two-day shutdown to five days while reline crews were deployed from other mine sites. It said this shutdown and a slow ramp-up after the reline were major contributors to the lower than forecast quarterly ounces produced in the March quarter. Beacon advised it was aiming to produce 6000oz-8000oz in the current quarter. However, the record high gold price meant revenue was higher in the March quarter, with sales of 6515oz at $4520/oz netting $29.45 million, up on the $26.6m in the December quarter. The company said mining rates at the MacPhersons project in the latest quarter were lower because of restricted mining widths in the cutback and delays caused when drill and blast activities were carried out. Beacon said during the delays mining crews rehandled parts of the existing waste dump to comply with mine closure requirements. Executive chairman and managing director Graham McGarry said the lost milling time and lack of access to high grade ores from mining at MacPhersons were the reasons for the lower than forecast quarterly gold production. “Realised gold sale prices have improved markedly for the quarter with sales exceeding the December quarter sales revenue despite the lower production ounces,” he said. “We have commenced stage one grade-control drilling at Iguana as we simultaneously advance the approval process in other areas of the Lady Ida project.”