Metanor Resources announces commercial production at Bachelor Mine

During the month of October operations at Bachelor Mine poured 4,082 ounces of gold at an average head grade of 6.15 g/t gold.

Metanor expects operations to average mill throughput of 18,500 tonnes per month moving forward and to produce 10,000 ounces of gold each quarter.

“To reach commercial production at Bachelor Mine is an important milestone for the company that we can proudly take credit for,” said Metanor President and CEO Ghislain Morin. “We want to personally thank all our employees, suppliers, financial partners such as Sandstorm, Ressource Québec and our shareholders, as well as members of the Cree Communities and James Bay communities for their effort and support.”

Bachelor Lake is a high-grade underground mining operation with a shaft the reaches a depth of 727 meters. The upgraded mill has capacity to process up to 1,200 tonnes per day (tpd) and includes a carbon-in-pulp treatment system that is achieving gold recovery rates as high as 98%.

National Instrument (NI) 43-101 Measured and Indicated resources at Bachelor Lake total 841,591 tonnes grading 7.79 g/t gold for a total of 210,857 contained ounces. An additional 426,148 tonnes grading 6.52 g/t gold reside in the Inferred category.

Sandstorm Gold (TSX: SSL) purchased a 20% life-of-mine gold stream on Bachelor Lake in 2011 at $500 per ounce for an upfront payment of $20 million. Metanor also guaranteed delivery of a minimum of $20 million in pre-tax cash flow by the end of 2017.

Metanor is working to increase production to between 80,000 and 90,000 ounces of gold annually and decrease cash costs to an average of $800 per ounce by 2015. Cash costs are currently running approximately $1,000 per ounce.

The company also continues to have exploration success from infill drilling at Bachelor Lake, reporting 10.4 meters of 12.2 g/t gold earlier this month.

Shares of Metanor are traded on the TSX Venture under the ticker symbol MTO. The company has 267 million shares outstanding and holds a market cap of $49.5 million. Shares are down -2.63% year-to-date but have doubled over the last three months after hitting a 52-week low of $0.07 per share.