Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
Australia’s Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST) said Tuesday it had achieved record sales of 232,042 ounces of gold across its operations during the June quarter, driven particularly by its Pogo mine in Alaska, as well as its Kalgoorlie and Jundee operations in Western Australia.
The company, which acquired the Pogo underground mine from Sumitomo for $260 million last year, said the operation’s sales jumped by 33% to 48,009 ounces in the June quarter, compared with the previous three months.
Pogo, Northern Star’s first mine outside Australia, has been commercially active since 2006 and is the eight-largest gold operation in the US
It also recorded lower costs (down 18%), but Northern Star said in a separate presentation that there was still a long way to go for Pogo to run as well as its Australian mines.
Output at the Alaskan mine, located southeast of Fairbanks city, had stalled during the March quarter due to the late delivery of underground equipment and the introduction of a new extraction method.
Pogo, the eight largest gold mine in the US, rests in the Tintina mineral belt, a 200km-wide province that stretches 1200km across much of Alaska through to the south-eastern Yukon.
The asset, Northern Star’s first outside Australia, has been commercially active since 2006, producing over 3 million ounces of gold to date.
Aside from holding large gold deposits, the area also hosts copper, lead, zinc, silver and tungsten. Barrick Gold, Teck Resources, South32 and Newmont Mining are other miners operating in the region.
