NQ Minerals (LON:NQMI) said last month’s plant production at its flagship Hellyer Gold Mine in Tasmania, Australia, saw an increase of 44% to over 1.3 million tonnes per annum compared to 2019's full year plant production numbers.
The production boost resulted in a new production rate of 150 tonnes per hour, following a plant upgrade and circuit optimisation exercise completed in June 2020.
This improved production rate is in comparison to Hellyer’s 2019 full year plant throughput which totalled 835,877 tonnes, an average of 103 tonnes total petroleum hydrocarbons at 92% plant availability.
"This Hellyer plant upgrade exercise has been successfully brought in some 6 months ahead of expectation,” said NQ’s Chairman, David Lenigas, of the firm’s flagship mining operation.
The group said optimisation works are now underway to ensure that the plant achieves maximum recoveries and concentrate specifications at these new higher production rates.
Shares in NQ Minerals were trading 3.23% higher at 8p on Thursday morning.
Lenigas said the increase in saleable mine product will have “a very positive effect on the company's top and bottom line revenues going forward.”
In addition, as well as assisting NQ with ongoing debt obligations, Lenigas said the production boost would position the mine with “increased profitability as commodity prices improve with the world emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic."
NQ re-opened Hellyer in late 2018, after purchasing its operations in 2017, with a tailing retreatment operation designed to last for at least 10 years.
Production at Hellyer will initially focus on lead and zinc recovery from the reserves with significant gold and silver credits payable.
Phase 2 of Hellyer's reopening plan is to re-open the rich underground mine, which has 1.175 million tonnes of underground JORC Resources grading 8.6% Zinc, 4.9% Lead, 96 g/t Silver and 1.66 g/t gold.
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