The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Northern Star's Alaska mine produces 70,792 oz gold for Q2 North of 60 Mining News – July 22, 2022
Northern Star Resources poured 70,792 ounces of gold at its Pogo Mine in Alaska during the second quarter of 2022.
Crews averaged 1,800 meters of underground development per month at the Pogo Mine during the second quarter.
Northern Star Resources Ltd. July 20 reported that the trend of increased gold production and lower costs is continuing at its Pogo Mine in Alaska.
During the second quarter of 2022, Pogo produced 70,792 ounces of gold from 322,290 metric tons of ore averaging 7.7 grams per metric ton gold. This marks a 23% increase over the 57,489 oz of gold produced and 24% increase over the 260,508 metric tons of ore milled during the first quarter of this year.
With gold production climbing, the cost per oz of gold sold at Pogo has dropped significantly.
The all-in sustaining cost per oz of Pogo gold sold during the June quarter was US$1,184, which is a 20% drop over the US$1,483/oz gold sold during the first quarter of this year.
The quarterly gold production puts Pogo nearly to the level of attaining the 300,000-oz-per-year production rate that Northern Star hoped to achieve upon the recent completion of a major expansion at the Alaska mine.
The upgrades at Pogo included:
• Increasing the mill throughput capacity to 1.3 million metric tons per year.
• Accelerating underground development to access more ore to feed into the higher capacity mill.
• Improving both surface and underground infrastructure to support the growth vision for the mine.
The mill nearly achieved nameplate capacity during the second quarter, and Northern Star says improvements to infrastructure are expected to provide the capability for the mine to deliver plenty of high-grade ore to sustain this pace.
During the June quarter, Pogo crews advanced an average of 1,800 meters of underground development a month, which is 20% higher than the baseline required to keep the mill operating at full capacity.
Northern Star currently expects Pogo to produce 260,000 to 290,000 oz of gold during fiscal year 2023, which began on July 1.
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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