Production at new McEwen mines a 'big disappointment'

MiningWeekly - Production at the new Gold Bar and Black Fox mines of Canadian miner McEwen Mining has been a “big disappointment”, chief owner Rob McEwen said on Tuesday, announcing a further cut in the company’s 2019 guidance.

The company lowered its guidance for Black Fox, in Ontario, to between 36 000 oz and 40 000 oz and for Gold Bar, in Nevada, to between 30 000 oz and 33 000 oz.

Overall, the group’s guidance has been reduced to between 131 000 oz and 138 000 oz of gold, while the guidance for silver remains unchanged at 3.23-million ounces.

The new guidance compares with the already-lowered guidance of July, when the company expected to produce 152 000 oz of gold. The latest guidance puts the miner's 2019 production in line with the 135 203 oz it produced in 2018.

“Unanticipated natural and operational issues coupled with start-up delays at Gold Bar have pushed some of its production from 2019 into 2020.

“At Black Fox, production has been adversely impacted by slower-than-planned underground development. However, site management has been making steady progress towards resolving these production issues,” said McEwen.

Meanwhile, McEwen said that while the production performance had been disappointing, the performance of its operations in Argentina and Mexico, as well as recent exploration drilling results at the Grey Fox deposit of the Black Fox Complex had put a smile on his face.

The current Grey Fox deposit resource estimate, published in July 2019, is 567 000 oz of gold at a grade of 7.10 g/t in the indicated category, with an additional 135 000 oz at a grade of 6.19 g/t in the inferred category.

The economic viability of the Grey Fox and Froome deposits would benefit from their close proximity to the Black Fox mine and its infrastructure.

McEwen said that preliminary results regarding the economics and potential development plans for Grey Fox and Froome would be presented later this year.

Courtesy : www.miningweekly.com