Brazilian firm Serabi Gold has reported impressive exploration results for the first month at its wholly-owned Palito gold mine in Para, Brazil.
The high-grade, narrow-vein underground Palito mine was operated by the company from late 2003 until the end of 2008, when the operation was placed on care and maintenance.
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During January, 3,264 wet metric tonnes (wmt) were processed through the milling, gravity and flotation sections of the plant, which is consistent with the company’s long-term target throughput rates of 10.5t per hour.
Serabi Gold noted that the average hourly throughputs at the mine were in line with full scale production estimates.
According to the company, ore stockpile awaiting processing of 25,000t was at 10.2g per tonne of gold.
Serabi Gold CEO Mike Hodgson said the mine’s first month of production is impressive and the company is on track to reach full throughput by 1 April.
"However, by the end of January we had begun processing ore grading in excess of 8g per tonne of gold," Hodgson said.
"With approximately four months of high-grade ore at an average grade of 10g per tonne of gold stockpiled in front of the plant, we remain confident that we will quickly be achieving our previously advised Palito monthly gold production target of around 2,000oz per month."
The mine is expected to produce an average gold grade of 8.98g per tonne to a total gold equivalent production of 201,300oz, and to produce 24,400 gold equivalent ounces per year over an eight year period.
The initial shipment of copper-gold concentrate material for sale is expected to be transported from site during February.
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