Pan African is pleased to provide an operational update for the year ended 30 June 2019 (“current reporting period”).
Pan African CEO Cobus Loots commented:
“Pan African has emerged at year-end as a safe, low-cost and long-life gold producer, following the successful execution of our strategy. We exceeded the full year production guidance of 170,000 ounces, resulting in the Group’s gold production increasing by 7.5% to 172,442oz – or 54.1% on continuing operations relative to the corresponding reporting period.
This has been delivered through the cessation of the high cost underground mining at Evander Mines, the successful commissioning of the Elikhulu tailings retreatment plant, and Barberton Mines achieving a significant increase in production. Critically, Barberton Mines achieved a historical milestone of 2 million fatality free shifts during June 2019 and we commend the team for this safety achievement.
We continue to assess the optionality of our portfolio and are looking to build upon this year’s momentum to drive further growth. Evander’s 8 Shaft Pillar mining is expected to contribute an additional 20,000oz to 30,000oz per annum for the next three years. The Group is currently reviewing the merits of expediting the Egoli project and is assessing funding options. Progress is also being made with the underground mining project feasibility study at Royal Sheba and we look forward to communicating the results to shareholders in the near future.
We are also very mindful of the positive socio-economic impact that the mining industry has on communities and are proud of the way we manage our stakeholder relations. That said, we continue to experience certain challenges amongst specific stakeholder groups, which have impacted Barberton Mines, and are working in conjunction with law enforcement and other stakeholders to remedy the situation.
As previously announced, the 2020 financial year production guidance will be approximately 185,000oz, representing an important increase in our year-on-year gold production profile.”
OPERATIONAL RESULTS
Key highlights for the current reporting period relative to the corresponding 12 months ended 30 June 2018 (“corresponding reporting period”):
- Gold production from the Group’s continuing mining operations increased by 54.1% to 172,442oz (2018: 111,879oz) (Note 1).
- Gold production from the Group’s continuing and discontinued operations increased by 7.5% to 172,442oz (2018: 160,444oz).
- Barberton Mines:
- Production from the Barberton complex increased by 9.6% to 99,363oz (2018: 90,629oz);
- Underground and surface mining increased by 3.1% to 75,356oz (2018: 73,125oz); and
- Barberton tailings retreatment plant (“BTRP”) production increased by 37.2% to 24,007oz (2018: 17,504oz) due to an improved tonnage throughput and recoveries following the successful commissioning of the BTRP regrind mill in May 2018.
- Elikhulu tailings retreatment plant (“Elikhulu”):
- Processed 10.85-million tonnes from September 2018 to June 2019;
- Achieved a recovered grade of 0.133g/t; and
- Gold produced of 46,201oz (1,437kg), which excludes pre-production gold of 736oz (22.9kg) capitalised as pre-production income and gold inventory locked-up in the Elikhulu circuit. The production figures include the 200,000 tonnes per month throughput from the Evander tailings retreatment plant (“ETRP”), which was incorporated into Elikhulu with effect from January 2019, which increased Elikhulu’s processing capacity to 1.2-million tonnes per month.
- Evander Mines:
- Remnant mining and surface sources contributed a further 26,878oz (2018: 21,250oz).
Note 1: The continuing mining operations include: Barberton Mines, Evander Mines’ Elikhulu and ETRP as well as the mining and vamping of the remnant high-grade stopes as part of the phased closure of the Evander Mines’ underground mining operation. The continuing mining operations exclude the discontinued Evander Mines’ large-scale underground mining operation, which produced 48,656oz in the corresponding reporting period. pan-african