The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
WestMountain Gold Inc. Feb. 1 filed an operation plan that projects its Terra gold project will produce an estimated 5,600 ounces of gold bullion from roughly 3,600 short tons of ore processed by the mill and gravity recovery plant at the southwestern Alaska mine in 2016.
The company plans to start its mill June 1 and operate for 122 days through Sept. 30.
The plans include processing roughly 30 tons of material a day, or slightly more than double the 14.46 tons per day processed in 2015.
In total, Terra produced 1,406 ounces of gold from 927 tons of ore processed in 2015.
This comes to 1.54 ounces of gold recovered per ton of ore milled.
The mill, however, was down 59 days, or 47.7 percent of the planned 124 operating days, last year.
"The lost gold production and wages paid due to the mill down time cost the company more than US$1.5 million in lost revenue and operating costs," the company penned in its operational plan.
"While all mills require routine maintenance, the amount of down time due to mill equipment failure and break down was excessive and must be reduced to no more than 10 percent to 15 percent in 2016." WestMountain Gold said it plans to invest roughly US$37,000 on mill upgrades, US$45,000 on equipment repairs and another US$35,000 on two new wells at Terra, all aimed at reducing downtime this year and in the future.
The company estimates operating costs during the operating season at Terra to be US$1.33 million.
If gold maintains an average price of US$1,100 per ounce in 2016, WestMountain projects 2016 gross revenues of US$6.2 million for 2016 at the small high-grade mine.
Additionally, WestMountain Gold CFO James Creamer III was appointed a director of the company. Following the appointment of Creamer, Gregory Schifrin, Michael Lavigne, and Dale Rasmussen each notified the company of their respective resignations from the board of directors. The former board members said their resignations did not involve any disagreement with WestMountain Gold on any matter relating to its operations, policies, or practices.
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Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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