Good post but I don’t think you have the complete picture.
In the quarterly report it says the mill can only process 20% sulphide blend and they are mixing in low grade 0.65g/t oxide stuff to make it work.
879970 tonnes at 1.06g/t
703976 tonnes oxide could be low as 0.65g/t (?)
175994 tonnes sulphide might be at 2+ grams, which is the high grade ore they are talking about but can’t process unless mixing in 80% of low grade oxide stuff.
The oxide ore is exhausted at Tucano which is why SJ told someone here “there’s no company without the mill”.
“Various oxide stockpiles were used to facilitate the blend through the mill during the quarter. Total high grade and low grade gold ore stockpile ounces at the end of March 2018 decreased by 6% to 2.76 million tonnes @ 0.65 g/t for 57,500 ounces, whilst marginal stockpiles of 1.5 million tonnes @ 0.43 g/t for 20,400 ounces remained static. The decrease in stockpiles was principally due to a drawdown of in high grade and low grade oxide stockpiles on the ROM following the completion of the phase pit in Tap AB1 Trough Lode. Spent Ore was also drawn down by 13% to supply oxide feed to the plant during this period. 0.47 million tonnes @ 0.70 g/t for 10,500 ounces form part of the ROM expansion and are not included in the high and low grade ore stockpile total.”
They are using even using ore that’s been processed once already, just to keep the chemistry working.
Stripping ratio is high because they are stripping sulphide pits they can’t process.
“In the March 2018 quarter 634,215 tonnes of gold ore were mined, an increase of 2% over the March 2017 quarter. Total material movement was 6,500,433 tonnes, an increase of 95% over the March 2017 quarter. The increased material movement resulted from improved mining productivity, the addition of the second mining contractor in July 2017 and a focus on waste stripping campaigns at the predominantly sulphide Urucum pit in preparation for completion of the plant upgrade in mid-2018 and Tap C pits.”
BDR Price at posting:
8.3¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
