The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - April 26, 2024
The iconic "big blue tube" delivers ore to the mill at Northern Star's Pogo gold mine.
Northern Star Resources Ltd. April 23 reported that its Pogo Mine in Alaska produced 58,432 ounces of gold during the first three months of 2024, which is about 17% higher than the 49,799 oz recovered during the same period of 2023 but down about 12% from the 66,655 oz produced during the previous quarter.
Reduced mill throughput due to a damaged conveyor belt was the primary reason for lower gold production compared to the previous quarter.
During the first three months of this year, the mill processed 309,105 metric tons of ore averaging 6.8 grams per ton gold, compared to 355,611 metric tons of ore averaging 6.7 g/t gold during the previous quarter.
"During the quarter, Pogo had a planned shut as well as experienced some unplanned downtime, which has since been resolved," Northern Star Resources Managing Director Stuart Tonkin told analysts and investors on April 23. "Grades were lower than expected due to stope mine sequencing, although grades have increased so far during the June quarter."
In addition to keeping throughput at or above the mill's nameplate capacity of 325,000 metric tons per quarter, Northern Star sees increasing the mill feed grade as the primary key to boosting gold output at Pogo.
According to a calculation completed about this time last year, Pogo hosted 5.9 million metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 8.6 g/t (1.6 million oz) gold.
Northern Star continues to focus on increasing the percentage of stope ore processed to decrease dilution and increase the gold grades being fed into the mill.
During the first quarter, the Pogo mine delivered 192,000 of stope ore, which accounts for 61% of the total ore mined.
The company says gold grades have increased so far this quarter due to a larger percentage of higher-grade stope ore being processed.
"And pleasingly, mine development rates continue to strengthen, averaging a monthly rate of around 1,600 meters a month from five development jumbos," said Tonkin.
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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