The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
While expanded mill runs at near capacity, ore grades drop North of 60 Mining News – October 21, 2022
Northern Star's Pogo Mine in Alaska recovered 54,330 oz of gold during the third quarter.
The expanded and upgraded Pogo mill processed 319,433 metric tons of ore averaging 6.1 g/t gold during the third quarter.
Northern Star Resources Ltd. Oct. 18 reported a drop in gold production and an increase in per-ounce costs at its Pogo Mine in Alaska.
During the third quarter of 2022, Pogo produced 54,330 oz of gold from 319,433 metric tons of ore averaging 6.1 grams per metric tons gold. While the mill throughput was only down slightly from the 322,290 metric tons processed during the previous quarter, gold grades were nearly 23% lower than the 7.7 g/t gold ore produced during the previous quarter. As such, the third quarter gold production fell a corresponding 23% drop f the 70,792 oz produced during the three months ending June 30.
With less gold produced, the cost per oz of gold sold at Pogo climbed.
The all-in sustaining cost per oz of Pogo gold sold during the September quarter was US$1,518, which is roughly 28% higher than the US$1,184/oz of gold sold during the second quarter of this year.
Northern Star Resources Managing Director Stuart Tonkin told investors that increasing grades and reducing costs are top priorities at Pogo.
"I would not say we're ahead of the plan on anything, but we're pleased with the progress we are seeing so far," he said in response to a question on progress at the mine operated by the Australian company.
Northern Star is also pleased with the steady rate of the mill at Pogo, which was recently expanded by 30% to its current 1.3-million-metric-ton-per-year throughput rate.
The mill has been processing ore at a rate that is within 1% of the nameplate capacity over the past six months, even with a planned maintenance shutdown during the September quarter.
With the mill running at nameplate capacity, the Australian mining company is looking forward to increasing ore grades to achieve its 300,000-oz-per-year gold production target for Pogo.
Tonkin says the significant improvements made at Pogo "are the foundations for the growth ahead," and the Northern Star team is "very excited about the exploration upside within the mine and regionally, which continues to be explored and extended."
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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