Golden Minerals, a Colorado-based company, announced that it has revised the Q1 2012 production from the Velardeña operations and also provided a revised production guidance for fiscal year 2012.
Compared to the initial results released earlier, Q1 2012 production from the Velardeña operations was significantly better. Production for the quarter was about 110,000 oz of silver and 1,700 oz of gold, surpassing production guidance by nearly 22% for silver and 30% for gold.
For the remaining three quarters of 2012, production guidance has been revised with a minor decrease in expected silver production and a minor increase in expected gold production. For 2012, payable gold production guidance is about 9,400 oz against earlier production guidance of 9,000 oz, and payable silver production guidance is likely to be 590,000 oz against earlier production guidance of 740,000 oz.
For 2012, the drop in expected silver production was because of a delay in the proposed arrival of mobile mining and supplementary equipment, and this delay brought down the amount of mine development, which further delayed access to high-grade slopes and further reductions in dilution. Gold production is projected to remain close to the earlier production guidance as the firm intends to use the latest bulk flotation process that is being deployed at the oxide plant to enhance gold recoveries.
Golden Minerals is performing engineering studies on various alternatives for a potential phased expansion of production at the Velardeña operations, instead of the 1,300 tons per day expansion that is being assessed. For 1,300 tons per day alternative, the company is anticipating roughly $20 million. The timing of a possible expansion will depend on the availability of funds.
Source: http://www.goldenminerals.com/