While Northern Star Resources admitted it endured a challenging March quarter, with gold sales down 10 per cent, the gold miner said it has “emerged with positive momentum”.
While gold sales were 363,000 ounces in the three months to March 31, compared to 404,000 ounces sold the quarter before, Northern Star has maintained its production guidance of between 1.56–1.68 million ounces for the 2022–23 financial year (FY23).
“This quarter was a challenging one for Northern Star, but we have emerged with positive momentum, and the prospect of improved production across the group, to remain on track for a strong finish to FY23,” Northern Star managing director Stuart Tonkin said.
“Unplanned mill outages at KCGM (Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines) and Pogo have been addressed and the team is now focused on delivering our full-year production guidance.
“I am extremely grateful to the Pogo operations team, which worked tirelessly to repair the damaged mill motor in a safe, cost-efficient and timely manner. Pogo has returned to normalised operating levels with a continued focus on high-grade stope ore.”
Northern Star’s Pogo operation in Alaska was performing strongly up until an unplanned mill event in March, where damage was incurred to the ball mill motor, halting production for three weeks.
Before the shutdown, Pogo was processing ore at a rate equivalent to 1.2 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) at gold grades significantly higher than the December quarter. This has Northern Star believing the operation is set to recover strongly from the setback.
“The increased contribution of higher-grade stope ore remains a near-term focus, which will drive production higher and costs lower,” Northern Star said in its quarterly.
As for KCGM, processed ore volumes decreased by 17 per cent compared to the December quarter due to its own mill shutdown, where recoveries were impacted in the carbon circuit. The company is currently undertaking a full restoration of the carbon circuit which is set to be completed during the June quarter.
Northern Star said productivity rebounded at KCGM towards the end of the March quarter, having also been affected by shovel maintenance in January and February.
“Material movement in March achieved an annualised rate of 83Mtpa vs a target of 80–100Mtpa until FY26,” the company said. “Underground ore volumes increased to 528,000 tonnes (+12% from the December quarter) to achieve their targeted 2Mtpa run rate in FY23.
“Looking ahead to FY24, underground volumes are on track to further advance to 2.5Mtpa while access into Golden Pike North is expected from further East Wall remediation progress.”
Northern Star said its $300 million buy-back program remains open and was 42 per cent complete, with expiration set for September 2023.
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