SAG and ball mills at Cadia. Image: Newcrest.
BY CAMERON DRUMMOND
NEWCREST has lowered its gold production forecast to reflect the temporary suspension of operations at its Cadia gold project in NSW.
Cadia’s production guidance was downgraded to between 560,000oz and 600,000oz for FY18, down from between 680,000oz and 780,000oz.
An embankment slump of Cadia’s Northern Tailings Facility had occurred in March, halting production at the mine.
Mining was suspended, with processing recommencing at a restricted capacity from 29 March due to limitations of the capacity of the Southern Tailings Facility.
In April, the gold miner announced it had received approval from the NSW Department of Planning and Environment to use the first 200m of the old Cadia Hill open pit as a tailings storage facility.
The permit, as well as the mine’s Southern Tailings Facility, will allow Newcrest to return to the mine to full production rates for about 16 months.
Cadia produced 142,970oz in the March quarter, down from 180,223oz in the December quarter.
Its other Australian operation, Telfer, also had its production guidance slightly lowered due to lower mill feed grade and access to the Main Dome pit due to wet weather during the March quarter.
This was buffered by higher than forecast production at its Lihir and Gosowong mines.
Production across its five operating mines for the quarter was 576,000oz, down 6 per cent from the previous period.
Newcrest now expects to produce between 2.25 million ounces (moz) and 2.35moz this financial year, down from between 2.4moz and 2.7moz.
Newcrest managing director Sandeep Biswas said despite the challenges, the March quarter had some positive outcomes.
“It has been a busy quarter, starting with our acquisition of an interest in Lundin Gold, followed by the release of an updated feasibility study for Wafi-Golpu,” Mr Biswas said.
“Both are Tier 1 asset development opportunities for Newcrest.
“I have been particularly impressed by the efforts of our people at Cadia who have risen to the challenge and are striving to safely restore the operations to normal production.
“At Lihir, we achieved a record annualised throughput rate of 15 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) for the quarter – this significantly exceeded our sustainable target milling rate of 14mtpa and is a great achievement.”
