Labrenz, who led the venture from exploration via improvement and manufacturing in simply six years, has additionally resigned from the board; Tetzlaff will proceed to offer help in an advisory capability.
The change in management, which the board says “higher align operational necessities with skilled experience,” follows the late October appointment of board member Maryse Belanger as mine common supervisor.
In her earlier function as president and COO of Atlantic Gold, Belanger was a part of the workforce that developed the Touquoy mine in Nova Scotia, later bought by St Barbara.
PureGold mine
Pure Gold poured first gold on the finish of 2020 and introduced the beginning of business manufacturing in August 2021. Nevertheless, the PureGold mine has struggled to persistently produce at its nameplate capability of 800 t/d. Within the third quarter, it achieved 685 t/d at 4.8 g/t informed for whole manufacturing of 9,260 oz. gold, declining to 556 t/d at 4.9 g/t for 7,657 oz. gold within the fourth.
In August, Pure Gold accomplished mill upgrades to extend capability to realize 1,000 t/d, with the expectation of attaining constant manufacturing of 850-950 t/d within the fourth quarter. It additionally raised C$23 million to fund the ramp-up of operations and for underground improvement and drilling within the high-grade 8 zone.
Manufacturing problem
The corporate says the important thing problem to assembly manufacturing targets has been in sustaining entry to sufficient high-confidence, high-grade stopes to feed the mill. The scarcity in high-grade ore has meant Pure Gold has at instances needed to mix low-grade improvement materials and stockpiles with high-grade ore, lowering total mill grades.
The firm pointed to a mixture of things, together with improvement delays, inadequate scheduling flexibility, inadequate geologic info accessible for stopes previous to mining, gear downtime, and strategic misalignments.
Underneath Belanger, the corporate has made enhancements to the operation together with modifications to mine planning and scheduling, and reorganization of knowledge and workflow constructions which have diminished assay turnaround instances.
The corporate can also be conducting extra definition drilling to enhance stope designs and enhance scheduling flexibility, and has carried out a geologic confidence-based mannequin to standardize choice making and enhance mine scheduling and planning.
Though the modifications have been solely carried out in mid-November, the corporate says they’re already attaining outcomes, with throughput, grades and manufacturing enhancing in December. For the final three weeks of the yr the mine averaged 760 t/d at 6.6 g/t gold for 3,232 oz. of manufacturing.
The corporate is now focusing on 600-700 t/d for the primary quarter of 2022, with head grades of between 5 to 7 g/t gold.
It has additionally sought to scale back prices via a number of measures, together with: elimination of some senior administration roles; implementation of a brand new crushing and hauling contract in November that reduces materials dealing with prices by 25%; and negotiating a brand new settlement with Dumas Mine Contracting.
“I’ve been immersed in all aspects of the operation with the aim of getting the mine worthwhile within the near-term and guaranteeing that the tradition is one which fosters operational excellence for the long-term,” mentioned Belanger in a launch.
“Given the modifications underway, I’m assured that we are going to achieve success going ahead. The PureGold mine wants a management workforce with deep operational expertise to information and help the workforce at web site, shift after shift, day after day, to achieve success. We now have that at PureGold now and in time, success will comply with.”
(This text first appeared within the Canadian Mining Journal)
