GOLD: Fiore expects Pan to produce up to 48,000 oz. in 2020

NEVADA - Fiore Gold issued a statement saying that gold production at its Pan mine will be weighted towards the second half of the fiscal year and that despite a production shortfall in the first quarter, it still expects 45,000 oz. to 48,000 oz. this year. Fiore also said that ore mining rates are expected to stay at roughly 14,000 t/d, while the stripping ratio for 2020 is expected to be around the life-of-mine average of 1.6. “As we are stripping at higher rates earlier in the year, the strip ratio is projected to drop significantly to approximately 1.1:1.0 by the fourth quarter of 2020,” the media brief states. Mined ore grade, on the other hand, is forecast to be in the range of 0.014 oz./t  to 0.016 oz./t, with higher grades towards the second half of the year. “In the first quarter of 2020, the Pan mine ramped up towards the higher gold production levels expected from the installation of the primary crusher,” Tim Warman, Fiore’s CEO, said in the release. “Gold production in the first two months of the (fiscal) first quarter was below plan as the operating team worked to optimize crusher throughput and fine-tune the reagent mix and operating procedures. As with all heap leach operations, there was also a natural timing delay between placing crushed ore on the leach pad and gold reporting to the process plant. However, the positive impact of the operational improvements began to be seen in December 2019 with gold production of 3,989 oz. and similar production levels continuing through January 2020.” This story originally appeared on www.Mining.com.