Karora Resources Inc has announced record quarterly consolidated gold production and said it is on a solid footing to achieve its full-year 2021 guidance range.
Production at its Beta Hunt and Higginsville mines in Western Australia grew to 30,365 ounces for the third quarter of 2021, taking production for the first nine months of the year to 84,889 ounces, in line with consolidated 2021 production guidance of 105,000 to 115,000 ounces. Gold sales for the quarter reached 28,935 ounces.
"Record third-quarter gold production of over 30,000 ounces continues to track well with our increasing gold production profile as we move through 2021 and places us on solid footing to achieve our full-year 2021 guidance range,” chairman and CEO Paul Andre Huet said in a statement.
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The company said its consolidated cash balance on September 30 reached $86.7 million, an increase of $4.5 million from June 30, after it deployed capital into new mining operations at Higginsville and Spargos and into its aggressive drilling program.
“During the quarter we continued to make significant investments in earthworks to prepare new, higher grade mining areas at Higginsville Central mines – Aquarius and Two Boys – and at our Spargos Mine,” Huet said.
“As we work through the final quarter of 2021 and look forward to 2022, we remain on track to deliver on our fully funded organic growth plan, which we believe to be one of the most robust growth plans in the junior gold mining sector,” he concluded.
Karora Resources is focused on doubling gold production to 200,000 ounces by 2024 compared to 2020 and reducing costs at its integrated Beta Hunt Gold Mine and Higginsville Gold Operations (HGO) in Western Australia.
The Higginsville treatment facility is a low-cost 1.6 million ton per annum (Mtpa) processing plant, expanding to a planned 2.5 Mtpa by 2024, which is fed at capacity from Karora's underground Beta Hunt and Higginsville mines.
At Beta Hunt, a robust gold mineral resource and reserve is hosted in multiple gold shears, with gold intersections along a four-kilometer strike length remaining open in multiple directions.
HGO has a substantial gold mineral resource and reserve and prospective land package totaling approximately 1,900 square kilometers.
The company also owns the high-grade Spargos Reward project which is anticipated to begin mining in 2021.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com