Intergra expects more gold from Randalls

Intergra Mining has announced that the production rate at its Randalls Gold Project, near Kalgoorlie, is expected to be 20 per cent more than originally estimated.

The project is expected to generate over $75 million in operating profit in the first year

In a statement the company said it had completed a revised mining schedule at the project and the production rate is expected to be in excess of 90,000 ounces a year, up from the original estimate of 75,000 ounces.

The company said this means at current gold prices finance for the mine should be paid off within 15 months.

Full statement below:
Integra Mining Limited (Integra, ASX: IGR) is pleased to announce that following completion of a revised mining schedule the forecast production rate at the Company's 100%-owned Randalls Gold Project development, located 60km south-east of Kalgoorlie, is expected to be in excess of 90,000 ounces annualised in the first year and a quarter post-commissioning - up from the original estimate of 75,000 ounces.

At current gold prices, project finance payback is expected to be completed within a 15 month period.

This production rate, which is over 20% higher than the original 75,000 ounces per year average rate published in the Project Feasibility Study, has been achieved by scheduling higher-grade open pit production for direct processing feed at around 3.7 g/t gold from the Salt Creek open pit in the early production schedule through to the end of the March quarter 2012. By the end of the March quarter 2012, mining at the Salt Creek open pit will also have produced a 1.3 million tonne stockpile of medium-grade material at an average grade of around 1.6 g/t gold.

By June 2012, the Company intends to reach an annual gold production rate of 100,000 ounces per year through the introduction of high-grade open pit production from the Maxwells open pit, high-grade underground production from the Santa and Cock-eyed Bob gold deposits and supplement this with feed from the medium-grade stockpile.

It is anticipated that by the end of calendar 2012 the Company will be considering a process plant upgrade capable of taking gold production to 140,000 ounces per year with the introduction of Phase 2 open pit mining and high-grade underground production.
Integra has a large Mineral Resources base of 1.8 million ounces at an average grade of 2.7 g/t gold (see ASX releases 10/1/08 and 26/6/08) which provides the Company with excellent exposure to current gold prices and considerable flexibility of production options.

Additionally, Integra has some very exciting exploration opportunities, foremost of which is the emerging Majestic discovery which is demonstrating early signs of good widths of 3.5-4.5 g/t gold drill intercepts which would appear very amenable to potential open pit mining (see ASX releases 3/5/10 and 25/5/10). The ultimate volume of open pit extractable gold mineralisation at Majestic may require a larger Salt Creek process plant upgrade than currently contemplated, however there is a great deal of work yet to be done at Majestic before its true potential can be determined.

Integra's excess cash position is funding an accelerated drilling programme testing depth extensions to the high-grade banded-iron formation (BIF) hosted gold mineralisation at the Maxwells, Santa and Cock-eyed Bob gold deposits and aggressive on-going exploration. It is expected that depth extensions to the known deposits will provide attractive underground production opportunities to supplement the Phase 1 open pit production currently under construction.

The development of additional underground and open pit operations will be more than adequately funded by existing cash reserves as well as strong project cash flows and no further capital raisings are anticipated.