The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - January 21, 2025
A brilliant display of the Aurora Borealis above the mill at Northern Star's Pogo gold mine in Alaska.
Northern Star Resources Ltd. Jan. 21 announced that its Pogo Mine produced 72,786 ounces of gold during the final three months of calendar year 2024, pushing the annual total to the brink of 280,000 oz.
Since completing an expansion of the Pogo mill to 1.3 million metric tons per year in 2022, Northern Star has been steadily ramping up gold output at the high-grade underground mine to 300,000 oz per year.
To accomplish this, the company has focused on keeping the mill operating at or above nameplate capacity while also improving the grade of ore running through the mill. The crews at Pogo were successful on both fronts.
During 2024, the Pogo mill recovered 279,427 oz of gold from 1.32 million metric tons of ore averaging approximately 7.6 grams per metric ton gold. This is up from the 254,492 oz recovered from 1.27 metric tons of ore averaging around 7.2 g/t gold during calendar year 2023.
The ongoing improvements in performance at Pogo are expected to continue into 2025.
"The Pogo plant is forecast to operate at a targeted throughput of 1.4 million tonnes per annum," Northern Star Resources Managing Director Stuart Tonkin said, referring to the Australian company's fiscal year ending June 30, during a Jan. 21 call to analysts and investors.
This milling rate, with ore grades similar to last year, would put Pogo on the cusp of hitting 300,000 oz of gold during 2025.
"So, we're pretty happy with where Pogo is at," Tonkin said.
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.
Reader Comments(0)