{"id":483,"date":"2011-01-31T11:45:30","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T00:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/focus-minerals-37-increase-in-gold-production\/"},"modified":"2011-01-31T11:45:30","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T00:45:30","slug":"focus-minerals-37-increase-in-gold-production","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/focus-minerals-37-increase-in-gold-production\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus Minerals 37% increase in Gold production"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.australian-shares.com\/forums\/search?Search=fml\">posted several times<\/a> about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.australian-shares.com\/mining\/FML\">Focus Minerals<\/a> (FML) one of the mid tier gold producers I own&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Activities Report for the Quarter Ended<\/strong><br \/>\n31 December 2010<br \/>\nHIGHLIGHTS<\/p>\n<ul> \u2022\t37% increase in gold production to 21,039oz (Sept 2010 Qtr: 15,300oz).<br \/>\n\u2022\tContinued downward trend in cash costs to A$877\/oz (Sept 2010 Qtr: A$932\/oz).<br \/>\n\u2022\tSales revenue of A$27.2 million from gold sales of 19,570oz at an average received price of A$1,388\/oz \u2013 average cash operating margin of A$511\/oz.<br \/>\n\u2022\tRecord ore processing through the Three Mile Hill plant with 327,319 tonnes processed @ 2.2g\/t Au.<br \/>\n\u2022\tRecord mine production of 151,412 tonnes @ 3.56g\/t Au from the Tindals Underground Mine.<br \/>\n\u2022\tProduction from The Mount Underground Mine and Tindals Open Pits on track to commence in the June 2011 Quarter with ore recovery commencing at The Mount from March 2011.<br \/>\n\u2022\tOutstanding results achieved from exploration work at the Treasure Island Project with surface samples of 58.9g\/t Au, 48.4g\/t, 41.3g\/t and 39.8g\/t.<br \/>\n\u2022\tAt 31 December 2010, Focus had total cash and equivalents of $8.68 million.<\/ul>\n<p>Focus Minerals Limited (ASX: FML) is pleased to report a record-breaking December Quarter that saw continued growth in gold production, expansion of mine development and a further reduction in cash operating costs, putting the Company on track to achieve its targeted annualised production rate of 100,000 ounces of gold during calendar 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Mine development continued at an aggressive rate during the Quarter with record mine production of 151,412 tonnes at an average grade of 3.56g\/t Au from the Tindals Underground Mine, including production of 60,300 tonnes at 4.8g\/t for the month of December \u2013 well above the targeted monthly average of approximately 45,000 tonnes for 2011.<\/p>\n<p>A record total of 327,319 tonnes of ore was processed through the Three Mile Hill Processing Facility during the Quarter, which is a record over its 15+ year history and equivalent to an annualised throughput rate of 1.3 million tonnes.<\/p>\n<p>Gold production increased by 37% to 21,039 ounces for the Quarter with the resulting cash operating cost of A$877\/oz continuing the positive trend of reducing cash costs.<\/p>\n<p>Exploration and development work at the Tindals Mining Centre continued at pace and the Company remains on track for the planned commencement of open pit operations at Tindals in the June Quarter.<\/p>\n<p>In preparation for the start of open pit mining, the Company undertook grade control drilling, resource\/reserve extension drilling and approvals work for the open pit operations with grade control returning outstanding results in many pending pit areas including 3m @ 32.7g\/t and 4m @ 23.4g\/t.<br \/>\nThe Mount Underground Mine, which represents a wholly new area of production growth for the Company, also kicked off its second phase in November, with a new box-cut being excavated and 185m of decline development completed. The new underground development will enable Focus to ramp-up to full-scale production from The Mount in the second half of the year.<\/p>\n<p>With the addition of The Mount and the open pits at the Tindals Mining Centre, Focus Minerals remains on track to substantially increase its production capacity during the first half of 2011.<\/p>\n<p>During the Quarter, Focus formally acquired a direct 75% interest in the Lake Cowan tenement which hosts the Treasure Island Project. Greenfields exploration at Treasure Island has delivered some exceptional results including surface rock chip sampling grades of 59g\/t, 39g\/t, and 41g\/t over outcropping strikes of more than 200 metres in three closely linked areas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>These preliminary results highlight the potential for an exciting new exploration opportunity for Focus Minerals along the world class Boulder-Lefroy fault system.<\/strong><br \/>\nCapital investment and exploration expenditure for the Quarter totalled $5.5 million, comprising $2.2 million of mine capital development and $3.3 million of exploration expenditure. This included $1.6 million relating to The Mount development. At the end of the Quarter cash and bullion held by Focus = $8.68 million.<\/p>\n<p>Campbell Baird<br \/>\nChief Executive Officer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have posted several times about Focus Minerals (FML) one of the mid tier gold producers I own&#8230;. Activities Report for the Quarter Ended 31 December 2010 HIGHLIGHTS \u2022 37% increase in gold production to 21,039oz (Sept 2010 Qtr: 15,300oz). \u2022 Continued downward trend in cash costs to A$877\/oz (Sept 2010 Qtr: A$932\/oz). \u2022 Sales [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9,20],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gold-blog","tag-asx-fml","tag-gold"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.australian-gold.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}