NR / Tue Oct 30 08:58:34 2018 EDT RNX Royal Nickel produces 31,360 oz Au in Q3
Tue Oct 30 08:58:34 2018 EDT
Royal Nickel Corp (TSX:RNX) Shares Issued 377,797,789 Last Close 10/24/2018 $0.62 Wednesday October 24 2018 - News Release
Mr. Mark Selby reports
RNC ANNOUNCES RECORD QUARTERLY GOLD PRODUCTION OF 31,360 OUNCES AT THE BETA HUNT MINE IN THIRD QUARTER OF 2018
Royal Nickel Corp. had record quarterly gold production of 31,360 mined gold ounces in third quarter of 2018, a 199-per-cent increase versus third quarter of 2017 production and a 135-per-cent increase versus second quarter of 2018. Gold production for the first nine months of 2018 totalled 58,460 ounces compared with 24,305 for the comparable prior-year period. The large increase in high-grade specimen and coarse gold production led to a 198-per-cent improvement in the mined grade for the quarter to 6.67 grams per tonne, as compared with 2.24 g/t in third quarter of 2017 and a 112-per-cent increase as compared with the second quarter of 2018.
Mark Selby , president and chief executive officer of Royal Nickel , commented: "Clearly, the highlight of the third quarter was the significant high-grade gold discovery at the Beta Hunt mine. As a result of the Father's Day vein discovery, the company will be in a substantial net cash position to fully fund our upcoming activities. With the arrival of the first drill at site during the past week, exploration activities will begin to ramp-up as part of an aggressive exploration campaign. The technical team is continuing to advance their work on understanding the sediment structures in the mine which have the potential for additional high-grade coarse gold."
Mr. Selby continued: "We are also pleased to announce the final gold content estimates for the large specimen stones, which would rank them among the largest ever found. The King Henry specimen stone, at 1,402 ounces, would rank amongst the largest gold specimens in existence. With multiple large-scale and spectacular specimens coming from a single area, we believe the Father's Day vein may rank among the richest and most prolific gold veins ever found."
A total of 199,000 tonnes of material was processed at an average grade of 5.26 g/t, for a total of 33,725 ounces of gold, a 185-per-cent improvement from prior-quarter milled production and 158 per cent higher than the third quarter of 2017. Milling grades were 62 per cent higher in the third quarter of 2018 compared with the prior quarter, and 136 per cent higher than the third quarter of 2017, mainly as a result of higher-grade mined material and specimen-grade material processed in September.
BETA HUNT MINE Q3 2018 PRODUCTION RESULTS
Beta Hunt gold and nickel operation (1) Q3 2018 Q3 2017 Q2 2018 YTD 2018 YTD 2017
Gold tonnes mined (000) 146 146 132 447 371
Gold mined grade (g/t) (3) (4) 6.67 2.24 3.14 4.07 2.04
Gold mined (ounces) (2) (3) (4) 31,360 10,489 13,320 58,460 24,305
Gold tonnes milled (000) 199 182 112 422 350
Gold mill grade (g/t) 5.26 2.23 3.29 3.98 2.06
Gold recovery (%) 95 90 92 94 91
Gold milled (ounces) (5) 33,725 13,047 11,844 53,941 23,180
Gold sales (ounces) (1) 23,805 8,659 11,508 43,291 25,200
Note that production numbers are preliminary estimates -- final grades and ounces can only
be determined once mined material has been processed. As of the end of the third quarter
of 2018, 70,500 tonnes of gold mineralization remained in inventory and had not yet been
processed.
(1) Numbers may not add due to rounding.
(2) The difference in gold sales ounces and gold mined ounces is due to timing differences
in receipt of gold sales depending on completion date of tolling campaigns.
(3) Final grades are determined once mined material has been processed.
(4) As of Sept. 30, 2018 , 70,500 t of gold mineralization remained on the ROM pad for
tolling in the subsequent quarter, as compared with 126,500 t of gold mineralization as
of June 30, 2018 .
(5) Includes 6,206 ounces of coarse gold and 2,390 ounces of specimen gold.
Father's Day vein update
Additional firings were completed at the Father's Day vein over the past weekend, resulting in the recovery of the Golden Rose slab. On-site personnel were not able to weigh the slab as its weight exceeded the maximum weight of the site scales. A weight and estimate of gold content will be provided by a third party laboratory.
Royal Nickel now expects 27,000 to 30,000 ounces of gold from the immediate Father's Day vein area and substantially more than 35,000 ounces from the 540 metres of A zone sediment structures identified to date.
With the expectation that continuing high-grade coarse gold will be produced by the mine on a regular basis, the Beta Hunt mine has taken measures to improve the ability to estimate coarse gold and realize cash flow more efficiently.
Final gold content of various specimens has now been measured by third party laboratories (based on the specific gravity of each specimen relative to the specific gravity of gold and the other minerals in the specimen).
SELECTED GOLD SPECIMENS -- ESTIMATED GOLD CONTENT
Specimen Gross weight Estimated gold content Gold grade
(kg) (oz) (g/t, %)
King Henry 94.21 1,402 462,870 g/t, 46%
Warren 63.38 893 438,236 g/t, 44%
Sylvie 3.86 88 709,095 g/t, 71%
Steve 3.87 74 594,740 g/t, 60%
Technical disclosure
The disclosure of scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been approved by Kevin Small , chief operating officer, Salt Lake mining, and vice-president, project development of Royal Nickel .
About Royal Nickel Corp.
Royal Nickel has a 100-per-cent interest in the producing Beta Hunt gold mine located in Western Australia where a significant high-grade gold discovery -- Father's Day vein -- was recently made. Royal Nickel also has a 28-per-cent interest in a nickel joint venture that owns the Dumont nickel-cobalt project located in the Abitibi region of Quebec which contains the second-largest nickel reserve and eighth-largest cobalt reserve in the world.
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