Subject to final reconciliation, the Company has produced 1,600 oz’s in the month of June 2018, bringing the campaign to date total to 3,244 oz’s. The production in the month was predominately from ore sourced from the level 2 stopes with some ore sorter product and fines from level 2 development material.
Similar to the previous month’s production the preliminary reconciliation indicates mill production consistent with estimates of grades delivered to the mill. The mining of levels 1 & 2 has now been completed with stock piles of Second Fortune ore continuing to be transported to the Burbanks Mill for processing.
The first milling campaign is expected to continue until mid‐July. Sorting of development ore was successfully trialled although elevated fines quantities resulted in less material being sorted than planned. Stope ore was direct shipped to the process plant.
There has been additional dilution in the level 2 stopes, most of which has been caused by the larger drive opening aligning with 2 other structures resulting in wed ges falling out. This has resulted in an increase in tonnes, and a corresponding reduction in grade. However, the gold produced has been consistent with the face sample grades taken during the develop ment of the drive. A full reconciliation will be undertaken at the completion of processing.
A design review is being completed for level 3 onwards which in volves the use of more traditional narrow vein mining techniques. This includes the use of narrower drives and split firing the ore. This should reduce the impact of the mine dilution issues and result in the stopes coming out closer to design, as the wedges exposed will be much smaller. This will result in significantly less tonnes being produced from both the development and production ore.
This rev iew will be completed once the gold produced from level 2 is finalised and reconciled with the block model predictions. Anova has previously advised that as part of its strategy to de‐risk the project a staged development approach has been adopted. The mining operations for the first stage (level 1 and level 2) were completed in June.
Anova has now entered into negotiations with GBF, the mine contractor for the first campaign, to re‐commence mini ng activities on the lower levels of the deposit. Negotiations between the parties are progressing well and Anova expects to be able to provide further information on the appointment of GBF for the next stage of production prior to the end of July.
Source: Company Press Release
