21 Oct Wiluna turnaround is delivering more gold at lower costs
Republished from stockhead.com.au
Special Report: Wiluna Mining’s turnaround strategy continues to bear fruit with the company ramping up production while slashing costs.
Production for the September quarter rose 18 per cent over the previous quarter to 13,360z of gold while all-in sustaining costs (AISC) dove 38 per cent to a more comfortable $2012/oz.
And there are more improvements to come.
Wiluna Mining (ASX:WMX) noted that AISC is expected to continue dropping in the current quarter as operations continued to improve in the September quarter. Strong production of 5,205oz in September was achieved at an AISC of just $1,833/oz.
This production improvement is expected to flow into the December quarter with several months of high-grade stockpiles available for processing and continuing to build up.
The company noted the ongoing production of about 5,000oz of gold per month should provide consistent cash flow of about $4m per month for the remainder of the financial year.
Open pit mining has been completed at the Matilda and Wiluna subsidiary pits, leaving the Williamson pit as the main free milling ore source.
This pit will continue to be mined at low strip ratios with the lower cost base to be maintained for the financial year.
Additionally, underground operations are returning to targeted mining rates and grade profile while further plant upgrades undertaken during the quarter are expected to benefit current operations along with future sulphide production.
Executive chairman Milan Jerkovic said the production and cost improvements are positive steps towards securing strong transitional cash flows to support sulphide development and commissioning of concentrate production by October 2021.
Read the article on stockhead.com.au
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