The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - August 9, 2024
The Kensington underground mine produced 23,202 oz of gold during the second quarter.
Coeur invested $10 million on exploration at Kensington over the first six months of 2024.
Coeur Mining Inc. Aug. 7 reported that its Kensington Mine in Southeast Alaska heads into the second half of 2024 on track to produce roughly 100,000 ounces of gold this year, and the summer exploration program at the Silvertip mine project in Northern British Columbia is now underway.
"Improved operating performance at Kensington was especially noteworthy as operational improvements and capital investments over the last two-plus years begin to take hold," Coeur Mining President and CEO Mitch Krebs said upon the release of the company's second-quarter results.
Over the first half of this year, Kensington produced 44,385 oz of gold from 349,482 metric tons of ore averaging 0.14 ounces per metric ton (approximately 4.4 grams per metric ton) gold.
The Southeast Alaska mine produced 23,202 oz of gold during the second quarter, which is 8% higher than the 21,434 oz recovered during previous quarter and 76% higher than the 13,193 oz produced during the second quarter of 2023.
Coeur attributes the increased gold output during the second quarter to higher tonnage fed through the mill and improved gold recoveries.
As a result of the increased ounces produced, the cost per ounce of Kensington gold sold during the second quarter was $1,734, which is 6% lower than the $1,840/oz of gold sold during the previous period.
With improvements expected to continue into the second half of the year, Coeur anticipates that Kensington will produce 92,000 to 106,000 oz of gold this year at a cost of $1,525 to $1,725 per oz sold this year.
Toward its goal of building enough reserves to feed the mill at Kensington for at least the next five years, Coeur invested $10 million in exploration at the Southeast Alaska mine during the first half of this year, including $6 million during the second quarter.
Coeur invested $10 million on exploration at Kensington over the first six months of 2024.
With up to four drills turning at any one time, the second quarter program focused on both resource upgrade and expansion targets.
In June, the company reported encouraging results from drilling at the newly identified Zone 50 in the Lower Kensington area, as well as the Elmira Main and Elmira South structures.
In its second-quarter report, Coeur reported that drilling continues to show significant growth potential at Zone 50 and has connected the Elmira Main and Elmira South structures into a single zone that is being traced along strike.
Overall, the drilling at Kensington continues to demonstrate meaningful progress toward expanding the reserve base.
"Following the conclusion of this program in the first half of next year, we expect Kensington to be well-positioned for a return to a sustained period of free cash flow generation and to be an important contributor to Coeur's U.S.-centric portfolio of long-lived mines in North America," Krebs said at the end of June.
Through the first half of 2024, the company invested $11 million into exploration at Silvertip, a high-grade mine project in Northern B.C. and about 180 miles northeast of Kensington.
While a new mining operation had been established at Silvertip when Coeur bought the project in 2017, the company decided to wind down operations to gain a better geological understanding of the project and build reserves before ramping up to commercial operations.
Early last year, the company launched an 18-month exploration program focused on significantly expanding the resource base at Silvertip.
Going into 2024, Silvertip hosted 7.15 million tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 8.06 oz/t (57.7 million oz) silver, 10.6% (1.52 million lb) zinc, and 5.37% (768.7 million lb) lead; plus 2.35 million tons of inferred resource averaging 6.9 oz/t (16.1 million oz) silver, 10.9% (481.8 million lb) zinc, and 4.26% (199.8million lb) lead.
To expand this resource, the 2024 program includes large step-out drilling on known structures, as well as significant mapping, sampling, and geophysics to rapidly explore a wider portion of the project.
Overall, Coeur plans to invest up to $14 million in exploration at Silvertip, plus $15 million to $20 million into underground mine development and site support costs.
"Recent results continue to reinforce the high-grade nature, overall size, and prospectivity of this exploration project," Krebs said during a January update on Silvertip. "This success continues to support the growing potential of Silvertip as an emerging tier one asset and future cornerstone for the company, containing some of the highest grades of silver, zinc and lead of any global carbonate replacement deposit in addition to a potentially meaningful complement of critical minerals."
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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