The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Alaska team "worked tirelessly" to repair mill in three weeks North of 60 Mining News – April 28, 2023
The Pogo gold mine in Alaska was down for three weeks to repair damage to a mill motor.
Northern Star Resources Ltd. April 26 announced that an unscheduled shutdown to repair the ball mill motor at Pogo resulted in a drop in gold production and increase in the per-ounce production costs at the company's Alaska operation.
When restarting the ball mill at the end of a routine mill shutdown in early March, the Pogo team discovered damage to the motor. At the time, Northern Star anticipated that it would take up to six weeks to make the repairs. In its quarterly report, the Australian mining company reported that the Pogo team was able to fix the damage and resume production in about half the anticipated time.
"I am extremely grateful to the Pogo Operations Team, which worked tirelessly to repair the damaged mill motor in a safe, cost-efficient and timely manner," said Northern Star Resources Managing Director Stuart Tonkin. "Pogo has returned to normalised operating levels with a continued focus on high-grade stope ore."
Even with the mill being down for about 25% of the quarter, Pogo Mine produced 49,779 ounces of gold during the first three months of 2023, only about a 15% drop from the 58,661 oz recovered during the previous quarter.
As a result of the drop in gold production, the all-in sustaining cost to produce each ounce of gold at Pogo during the first quarter was US$1,796, which is 32% higher than the previous three-month period.
While the 244,840 metric tons of ore processed with the mill during the first three months of 2023 was expectedly lower than the 319,433 metric tons processed during the previous quarter, the gold grades jumped 20% from the 6.1 g/t averaged during the final three months of calendar year 2022 to 7.3 g/t gold during the first quarter of 2023.
The rising gold grades at Pogo is due to increased amounts of ore mined from stopes, which accounted for 71% of total ore mined during the first three months of 2023.
Northern Star says the increased contribution of higher-grade stope ore remains a near-term focus, which will drive production higher and costs lower.
Given the lower gold output and higher production costs, Northern Star has adjusted its guidance for fiscal year 2023, which ends on June 30. Pogo is now expected to produce 225,000 to 240,000 oz of gold at an average all-in sustaining cost of US$1,430 to US$1,465/oz during fiscal year 2023, compared to the previous guidance of 260,000 to 290,000 oz at US$1,300 to US$1,400/oz in the previous guidance.
During the first nine months of Northern Star's fiscal year, Pogo produced 162,770 oz of gold, which means the Australian miner expects its Alaska operation to produce more than 62,000 oz of gold during the current quarter.
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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