By A.J. Roan Mining News
Less ore stacking, component repairs to slow 2022 output North of 60 Mining News – October 7, 2022
Last updated 10/6/2022 at 12:31pm
A splice failure puts the 1,500-meter overland conveyor belt at Eagle Gold Mine out of commission for two to three weeks, which will impact 2022 gold production.
Victoria Gold Corp. Oct. 4 reported the results from its third quarter production at the company’s Eagle Gold Mine, delivering 50,028 ounces of gold, down roughly 5,000 oz from the same period last year.
The company attributes the drop in year-over-year third-quarter gold production to no run-of-mine ore hauled directly from the open pit to the heap leach facility.
Last year, a total of 1.1 million metric tons of run-of-mine ore was hauled directly from the open pit to the heap leach pad, while this year they opted to forego mine stacking as it generally incurs higher unit costs and results in lower gold recovery of the stacked material.
The tonnage of waste mined during the third quarter compared to the same period of 2021 was less due to mine sequencing, longer waste hauls, and scheduled component replacements on major mine production equipment.
At the end of the third quarter, on Sept. 29, the 1,500-meter overland conveyer that links and delivers ore from the crushing plant to the heap leach facility experienced a splice failure on the main belt, which has been in service since the start of operations in 2019.
After review of the overall condition, it was determined that the best course of action was to replace, rather than repair, the belting. Due to the length of the belt and number of sections to be spliced, Victoria anticipates that crushing, conveying, and stacking operations will be down between two to three weeks.
During this temporary outage, opportune maintenance on the crushing circuits will be performed. Additionally, mining and recovery plant operations were not impacted and are continuing to perform as usual.
Victoria further states that it previously expected full 2022 production to be close to the lower end of the guidance range of 165,000 oz. If not for the conveyor belt failure, however, the mine was on track to meet guidance.
As a result, 2022 production and cost guidance have been retracted, and updated guidance will be addressed following full resumption of Eagle operations.
P.O. Box 773026 Eagle River, AK 99577-3026 Ph: (907) 726-1095
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