West Perth-based Troy Resources has announced it has begun milling ore at its Casposo project in Argentina and expects the first gold will be poured next month.
West Perth-based Troy Resources has announced it has begun milling ore at its Casposo project in Argentina and expects the first gold will be poured next month.
Troy CEO Paul Benson said it was a key milestone in the company's history.
"Casposo will support the doubling of Troy's production and rejoining the plus 100,000oz per annum producer club."
He said the company had experienced some delays in the delivery of processing instrumentation and chemical reagents.
But the delays are not expected to impact production during the 2011 financial year because the company has over a month of ore feed grading at 10 grams per tonne of gold equivalent ready for processing.
"Once the Casposo processing facility is commissioned and producing gold, we believe we will be in a position to declare and pay a dividend for 2010," said Mr Benson.
"We will update shareholders later in the December quarter about a final dividend decision," he said.
See full company statement below:
PERTH, Western Australia: Troy Resources NL ("Troy") (TSX: TRY, ASX: TRY) is pleased to announce the commencement of ore processing at the Casposo gold-silver project in San Juan Province in Argentina. The project is within budget and it is now expected first gold will be poured in October.
Commenting on the commencement of ore processing Troy CEO Paul Benson said; "This is a key milestone in the Company's history. Casposo will support the doubling of Troy's production and rejoining the plus 100,000oz per annum producer club.
"The team led by Ken Nilsson, Troy's Executive Director, has done an amazing job. We acquired Casposo in May of 2009 and approved construction in August 2009. To commence production in just 14 months is a truly outstanding result and yet again reinforces Troy's track record of fast track mine development.
"Due to last minute delays in delivery of some processing instrumentation and chemical reagents, we now expect to pour first gold in October. With over a month of ore feed grading 10g/t Au_eq stockpiled ready for processing and excellent grades exposed in the pit, we don't expect the slight delay to impact our FY2011 forecasts.
"Once the Casposo processing facility is commissioned and producing gold, we believe we will be in a position to declare and pay a dividend for 2010. We will update shareholders later in the December quarter about a final dividend decision.
"On the exploration front our strategy to date has been to focus our effort mainly on surface mapping and sampling in preparation for the commencement of a major drilling campaign. Diamond drilling at Castaño will commence in the first week of October and we expect to add a second diamond rig to commence testing the numerous drill targets at Casposo later in calendar 2010. We have budgeted A$7m for exploration around Casposo and Castaño in FY2011 and are confident that we will achieve our objective of adding significantly to the project's gold and silver Reserves and Resources."
