Gold miner KalNorth Gold Mines has undertaken a shakeup of operations at its Lindsay’s gold mine in an effort to lower costs.
The changes announced today on the ASX will see the mine produce only 13,500 ounces of gold to December 2013.
This is a substantial change from previous announcements made by the company which predicted the same output of 13,500 ounces for the June quarter alone.
The change in predicted gold output is in response to the Carosue Dam processing plant, which processes ore produced at Lindsay’s gold mine, only being contracted to process 25,000 tons of ore per month.
The Carosue Dam processing plant is owned by Saracen Mineral Holdings, itself a gold producer.
As part of the revised strategy the Lindsay’s mine will now only work as a single shift operation, producing approximately 75,000 tons of ore in the June quarter.
This lower extraction rate matches the Carosue Dam facility’s monthly processing capacity.
Lindsay’s mine will go on to produce 90,000 tons of ore for the September quarter bringing the total expected gold production for the year to 13,500 ounces.
KalNorth Gold Mines also announced today it had taken $4.2 million of short to medium loans with the directors of the company having personally contributed $700,000 of that amount.
The loans will be used to finance the company’s short term needs and fund the permit and approval stage of its second planned mine at Kalpini.
When KalNorth Gold Mines previously revised its Lindsay’s operations last month the company’s shares were traded at 24.5 cents with a total share value of $41.6 million.
Since that time the company’s share price has been slashed down to 12 cents and a total share value of $20.4 million.
