Scotgold Resources Ltd said its new approach of long hole stoping was “performing well and in line with management’s expectation” at the Cononish gold and silver mine near Tyndrum in Scotland.
CONSISTENT
During the first week of April, the company changed its plans from extracting ore via level development and cut-and-fill stoping, following poor gold grades at the 430 West ore drive.
The ROM (run of mine) pad had 400 to 500 tonnes of stope mined ore built up following the Easter break.
Ore is processed into gold concentrate and gold doré at the Cononish processing plant, with 1,200 to 1,300 tonnes processed to date during April.
“Since stope mining commenced, the mine is producing consistently and peaked with 28 DUX trucks of ore to ROM pad in a day,” added the company in a statement.
“The grade of the stope ore is on plan, commencing at 4.9g/t on the first cut and producing gold concentrate at 230 – 300 g/t gold.
“This grade is expected to improve as we bring the stoping front back into the higher grade areas of the stope length.”
CONTINUITY
Scotgold added that drones had also flown in the stope block to check the vein from the 415 to 430 drives which showed “great recovery and continuity of the vein between levels”.
“The subsequent stope blocks to be mined along the 115m stoping length of the eastern section of the 430 West drive increase in grade as we continue to retreat east on plan.
“The next stope block will then be prepared (via drilling) and blasted as planned.”
The company said that this stoping length would provide ore to the process plant until August.
Work also continues to ensure the next ore development tunnel on the 445 level is accessed in May to develop and prepare the next stope mining area.
One Reply to “Scotgold long hole stoping ‘performing well’”
Comments are closed.