The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News – April 13, 2018
The Jualin portal (upper right-hand corner) is ideally situated to deliver ore from the high-grade gold deposit to the Mill at Coeur Mining's Kensington operation in Southeast Alaska.
Underground development reached Jualin during the second half of 2017 but mining activities have been hampered by the quantity of water encountered there.
Coeur Mining Inc. April 9 reported that the Kensington Mine in Southeast Alaska produced 26,064 ounces of gold during the first quarter of this year, which is comparable to the 26,197 oz produced during the first three months of 2017 but down roughly 25 percent from the 34,932 oz produced during the previous quarter.
The company attributes the lower output, compared to the fourth quarter of 2017, to lower planned grades related to mine sequencing as well as maintenance-related mill downtime.
A historical mine at Jualin produced roughly 36,000 oz of gold from 1896 to 1919, but only limited mining or exploration had been carried out until Coeur began exploration and development there.
Following two years of underground development, Coeur began mining the high-grade Jualin deposit at Kensington during the third quarter of 2017.
Development mining continued at the Jualin deposit during the quarter, where production is expected to increase in the second half of the year following completion of dewatering efforts.
"It's taken us longer than planned to start accelerating mining activities due to the amount of water we've encountered," Coeur Mining CEO Mitchell Krebs said earlier this year.
The company anticipates that Kensington's second quarter gold output will be similar to first quarter levels and the company forecasts the Southeast Alaska mine will produce 115,000 to 120,000 oz of the precious metal this year.
Overall, Coeur's five operating mines – Kensington, Palmarejo (Mexico), Rochester (Nevada), Wharf (South Dakota), and San Bartolomé (Bolivia) – produced 3.2 million oz of silver and 85,383 ounces of gold, or 8.3 million silver-equivalent-oz when you calculate the value of the precious metals, zinc and lead produced.
During the quarter, Coeur also announced the start of commenced production at its Silvertip Mine in northern British Columbia. Mill throughput at this high-grade silver mine continues to ramp-up according to plan with commercial production expected to be achieved by mid-year.
Coeur's 2018 production guidance is 36 million to 39.4 million silver-equivalent-oz from its six mines.
–SHANE LASLEY
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