Mandalay Resources Corporation announced today its production and sales results for the second quarter of 2022.
Second Quarter Production Highlights:
- Consolidated saleable gold equivalent production and sales of 23,305 and 26,781 ounces respectively; and
- Costerfield achieves an average processing gold equivalent head grade¹ of 17.1 g/t, resulting in 14,989 gold equivalent ounces produced.
Dominic Duffy, President and CEO of Mandalay, commented:
“The Company’s second quarter production was below expectations as we mined areas that expanded the footprint and were beyond the planned development areas at both mines. Despite production being lower than our previous quarters, we expect to see improvements at both sites as we mine back into more centralized higher-grade areas during the second half of the year.
“Costerfield produced 14,989 saleable gold equivalent ounces in the second quarter – lower than in Q1 2022. Two major factors contributed to this. First, we were mining within the lower-level extremities of the Youle orebody, which continued out further than expected, but at lower grades than the central parts of Youle. Even though this material was at a lower grade than previously mined, it was still profitable and development continued so as to not sterilize the ore.
“Secondly, the site experienced an extremely high number of sick leaves during the quarter as COVID protocols prevented any persons with flu-like symptoms from entering the site. This affected our underground production rates, forcing the operation to process more lower grade stockpile than planned. That said, overall, we achieved another very profitable quarter with an average processing gold equivalent head grade of 17.1 g/t. This continued strength allowed Costerfield to produce 32,236 saleable gold equivalent ounces during the first half of the year, approximately 6% higher as compared to the six-month period ending in June 2021.
“Björkdal produced 8,316 saleable gold ounces during this quarter, which was less than planned due to lower throughput levels and feed grades at the processing plant. Processed grades declined relative to the previous quarter as we mined areas of lower grade in the mine plan and several key stopes underperformed in grade relative to the block model. Reconciliation work is underway to understand this underperformance. For the third quarter, mining activities will focus on production areas of high confidence. Grades were also impacted by pushing development drives in several areas past the planned stope limits as profitable grades continued, which ultimately delayed production in these areas. Processing tonnes were also lower than the first quarter as the deeper Aurora material, which was brought into production in the second quarter, was harder than historically processed resulting in a lower mill throughput. We are considering options for lifting the processing rates; including converting the mills to grade discharge mills allowing for higher milling rates.
“As always, we are committed to delivering strong performance and remain confident that we will achieve our 2022 operational and financial guidance. We expect grades to improve over the remainder of 2022 at both sites and look forward to demonstrating the sustainability and growth potential of our operations.”
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