Resource News

Great Basin’s two developing gold mines making good progress

GRONINGEN - 

Great Basin Gold, which is currently bringing two gold mines to production, announced a loss of C$0.03 per share for the fourth quarter of 2009, an improvement on the C$0.05 per share loss it reported in the third quarter. 

The group which is currently developing the Burnstone project in South Africa and the Hollister project in Nevada, also announced a reduced net loss for the year from C$0.40 per share in 2008 to C$0.16 in 2009.

Speaking on a conference call to investors on Thursday, CFO, Lou Van Vuuren, said the improvement was “partly due to the development cost of Burnstone being capitalized since November 2008 and more pleasing is the positive result of the cost reduction programme initiated in October 2008 –  this programme resulted in a decreased expenditure for exploration predevelopment as well as administration.” 

The group currently has C$92m in working capital of which C$89m is in cash or cash equivalents.  

The group says it is happy with the progress made at the group’s two projects, Hollister and Burnstone, although the number of gold equivalent ounces (GEO) extracted at Hollister came in lower than expected, largely due to a two week suspension of trial mining to examine the causes of an accident in November.  Efforts at the recently purchased Esmeralda mill, which is already processing Hollister ore, are being made to further improve gold recoveries, currently 83%,  now the initial refurbishing and commissioning phase is complete.

According to CEO Ferdi Dippenaar, “The number of gold equivalent ounces extracted through trial mining from our Hollister Mine project in the December quarter was somewhat lower than planned due to several factors; however I am pleased to report that the pace has picked up significantly in early 2010.” 

According to the group, cash costs at Hollister were US$423 per ton, up 12% on the year ago figure but, were higher than forecast as a result of the lower-than-planned tonnage.  

During the quarter a total of 16,785 tons of ore containing 20,660 GEO were mined , a 15% improvement over the third quarter of 2009. 

Burnstone, which Mineweb got the chance to visit recently, is also progressing well according to Dippenaar who says “Burnstone, in particular, is entering an extremely exciting phase of its development, with vertical shaft, mills and metallurgical plant converging on completion over the next several months.” 

According to the group, at the end of 2009 2,528 m of decline development had been completed and a total of 880 m of on-reef development was completed during the quarter.

“The initial long hole stoping trials have delivered positive results thus far, and the company plans to implement this higher level of mechanized mining on a trial basis over a period of 9 to 12 months before final evaluation.

It adds, “The current focus is the establishment of more mining stopes in Block B, with activities in Block C mainly focused on reef development. At December 31, 2009, in excess of 60,000 tons have been accumulated in ore stockpiles.”…read more at the Mineweb