2023 Production forecastRe-reading the Dec 2022 SRK feasability study, I found that low grade waste ore is often recyled back through the mill.
Appsrently, this is viewed positively by the Govt, as China has limited remaining gold resources.
I note that 200 tons of this low grade waste ore will be processed in 2023 , boosting the open pit tonnage mined to 2100 tpa.
I was very surprised that they could recover gold at those low grades but in re examining the sensitivity to cutoff grades Table , I found that the mill can recover grades as low as 0.1 gram per ton .
At that cutoff, the average grade mined of the SJ open pit becomes 0.78 grams per ton.
So, with 2100 tons scheduled to be mined in 2023 , we have 2100 ** 0.78 / 30.5 ** 0.93 = 50,000 ounces from the open pit mine .
The SJ North Underground mine will add another 3000-4000 ounces in 2023 for a total gold production of about 53,000 ounes for 2023 .
So, in the final 3 quarters as more of the newly sourced Phase 2 ore is mined, we should see a progressive increase in mine production, perhaps rising to 16,000 ounces by Q4 of 2023..