Fiore expects Pan mine to produce up to 48,000 ounces in 2020

Fiore Gold (TSXV:F) issued a statement saying that gold production at its Pan mine in Nevada will be weighted towards the second half of the fiscal year and that despite there having been a production shortfall in Q1, it is still expected in the range of 45,000-48,000 ounces.

Fiore also said that mining rates are expected to stay at approximately 14,000 tpd ore, while stripping ratio for full-year 2020 is expected to approximate the life of mine average of 1.6:1.0.

“As we are stripping at higher rates earlier in the year, the strip ratio is projected to drop significantly to approximately 1.1:1.0 by Q4 2020,” the media brief states.

Mined ore grade, on the other hand, is forecast to be in the range of 0.014 – 0.016 oz/t, with higher grades biased towards H2 2020.

“In Q1 2020, the Pan mine ramped up towards the higher gold production levels expected from the installation of the primary crusher,” Tim Warman, Fiore’s CEO, said in the release. “Gold production in the first two months of Q1 were below plan as the operating team worked to optimize crusher throughput and fine-tune the reagent mix and operating procedures. As with all heap leach operations, there was also a natural timing delay between placing crushed ore on the leach pad and gold reporting to the process plant. The positive impact of the operational improvements began to be seen in December 2019 with gold production of 3,989 gold ounces and similar production levels continuing through January 2020.”