RE:I am more of an optomist that most hereLike Sherm, I'm an opt(o)imist that a spell checker comes to Stockhouse soon.
I am disappointed that there were no recovery updates included in the first presentation in Colorado. I can't really think of a great reason not to update shareholders although they are perfectly within their rights to not get caught up in that game. My guess is that there were still hiccups in July & August and they are frantically trying to make the quarterly numbers better by having a great September. They DO have a record of announcing production information just after quarter end (before financials) so we will see something in mid-October.
I also read TempleTooth's "serial disappointer" and I think that label is fair at this point.
All of this has caused me to go back to their Q2 MD&A and carefully read what went on in the quarter (detailed excerpt below). They are acutely aware of the severity and importance of the recovery issues and the description below makes it clear, to me at least, the the recovery issues have been identified and are largely behind them in Q3. My guess is that jobs would be on the line at this point.
Reading the details makes it clear the compounding nature of the issues, which would be difficult to repeat going forward with the changes in place.
Recovery rates in Q3 would HAVE to be at least equal or higher than Q1 as the Q2 rates were lower BECAUSE of the work being done in Q2. That work is not being done in Q2 so Q3 would have to be a MINIMUM of 84%. On top of that backend could do it's job which made things worse. I would think recovery rates will be 86% or above for Q3.
Note that the plant is operationg at the 2,000 TPD level and that's the level they closed Q2 at.
I'm convinced that once the scavenger columns are installed (in Q3) we will see the 90% recovery level and they will start push through as much high-grade ore from the BTD extension as they can to pile up the cash in Q3 & Q4 while gold is hovering at $1500.
GLTAL
2Q19 MD&A (pg 16) ==>
The installation of the first surge bin between the crushing and grinding circuits was completed during the first quarter and commissioned during April. The second surge bin was installed during the second quarter and became operational on July 1, 2019. The surge bins have been successful in improving stability in the flotation circuit and have also resulted in the Plant achieving increased throughput. Plant throughput improved to 1,740 tpd from the 1,600 tpd achieved in the first quarter of 2019, and averaged 1,940 tpd in May and June combined, including a 21-day period that averaged more than 2,000 tpd to close out the quarter.
The additional gravity concentrators are now installed, commissioned and operational; however, the availability of the units was low. The commissioning of the two SB1350s and the two C2000s units was impacted by enhanced wear rates experienced at transition sections of piping within the batch gravity circuit, which transpired into pumping issues requiring reconfiguring the pumping and piping systems. Excessive replacement time by the manufacturer to replenish key components in the pumping systems kept the concentrators from being operational resulting in the SB400s being used as the primary backups to the system.
During the second quarter, there was 0% utilization of one C2000 and only 10% utilization of the second C2000. The utilization of the SB1350s was as low as 30% during certain periods in the second quarter and averaged only 62% during the quarter. Management believes it has resolved the technical challenges and expects improved operating results once all changes have been made early in the third quarter.
Work also continues on debottlenecking process flows and interaction with the concentrate treatment plant. There has been an improvement in gravity recovery achieved thus far, even with the low availability of the gravity concentrators; however, this has been offset by solution losses in the concentrate treatment plant resulting in an overall decrease in recoveries. The additional solution losses is due to the resin not being able to absorb the amount of gold that reports to the concentrate treatment plant due to higher recoveries achieved in flotation and the gravity effort. To manage solutions losses from the resin circuit, 23,700 tonnes of Incremental Ore were blended with high-grade Doris North ore during the quarter to reduce the average feed grade processed by the Plant. TMAC is working on designing and installing a resin cascade and a carbon column, each of which will scavenge gold from the solutions leaving the resin circuit, which will reduce volatility in concentrate treatment plant performance, and incrementally improve recoveries. The installation of the scavenger columns will remove the constraint on solution volumes presently limiting the concentrate treatment plant for treatment, as total gold loading must currently be carefully managed to prevent excessive losses.
During the second quarter, recovery losses of 20% (i.e., 100% less 80% recovery) consisted of flotation tails of 8%, detox solid tails of 3%, and solution tails of 9%, compared with the first quarter where recovery losses of 16% (i.e., 100% less 84% recovery) consisted of flotation tails of 10%, detox solid tails of 2%, and solution tails of 4%. Going forward, as expected recoveries approach their designed 90% levels, these ratios are expected to improve towards the original Gekko design specifications of approximately 7%, 2% and 1%, respectively. The reduction in flotation tails is due to the installation of the gravity concentrators. The scavenger columns are targeting recovering gold from the concentrate treatment plant solution tails and, therefore, management expects to see immediate improvements there; however, improved gravity concentrator availability in the third quarter is required to further reduce losses in the flotation tails.