Serabi Gold ends year on high with record quarterly production

The AIM-traded firm said that represented record quarterly production for Serabi.

Annual gold production totalled 37,108 ounces, which the board noted was an improvement on 2017 production.

It said the highest level of mined tonnage for 2018 was achieved in fourth quarter, with a total of 44,257 tonnes at 7.45 grams per tonne of gold.

A total of 45,548 tonnes of run of mine ore was processed through the plant from the combined Palito and Sao Chico orebodies, with an average grade of 7.39 grams per tonne of gold, which represented the highest quarterly throughput for the year.

Serabi said 2,460 metres of horizontal development was completed during the quarter, giving a total of 10,371 metres for the year.

A series of discrete ‘apparent conductivity’ anomalies had been delineated by the analysis of the airborne magnetic and electromagnetic (VTEM) survey flown during the third quarter, with the board saying those anomalies were indicative of probable sulphide bodies, which the firm hoped will be gold bearing.

It also identified the ‘Cinderella’ anomaly - a chargeability and conductive high extending over seven kilometres, which was coincident with a strong magnetic anomaly defined by the airborne VTEM survey.

Serabi said Cinderella was the most significant of a number of anomalies around Sao Chico identified by an induced polarisation (IP) terrestrial geophysics programme completed at Sao Chico in the fourth quarter.

The environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the Coringa project was approved by the State Environmental Agency (SEMAS), with public hearings now being planned.

Management said it expected an increase in gold production in 2019, with production forecast to fall between 40,000 and 44,000 ounces.

“It has been superb fourth quarter all around, with excellent production results and very exciting exploration results which we will be following up on during 2019,” said chief executive officer Mike Hodgson.

“In terms of production, a number of records were achieved.

“We also achieved the highest recorded quarterly rate of mine production for 2018, whilst the average mined grades for the fourth quarter showing a 20% increase compared with the third quarter.”

Hodgson said the plant continued to perform “extremely well”, and with more than 45,000 tonnes of hard rock ore processed, Serabi also achieved its best quarterly throughput levels of the year.

Looking ahead, he said that with an “excellent” final quarter for 2018, both orebodies in good order and the increased processing of surface stockpile material beginning imminently, the board anticipated continued production success and a good start to 2019.

“We will conclude the new resource drilling at Coringa by the end of January, with the new resource estimation planned for publication by the end of the first quarter and hopefully coinciding with further positive progress on licencing and permitting.

“I therefore anticipate 2019 being an excellent year for the company and I look forward to providing further updates in the coming months.”