Gold production at Trans-Siberian Gold falls 18% in Q1, annual forecast - 32,000-36,000 ounces
MOSCOW. April 21 (Interfax) - British company Trans-Siberian Gold plc (TSG), which develops the Asasha gold mine in Kamchatka Territory, saw production of refined gold fall 18% year-on-year in Q1 2017 to 7,644 ounces.
The company said in a statement that planned full year production in 2017 is 32,000-36,000 ounces. For comparison, Trans-Siberian produced 35,550 ounces in 2016.
Trans-Siberian said that extraction of new stoping ore was hindered by a lack of underground equipment, flooding at lower levels and the failure of mobile pump equipment. As a result, 40.8% of ore delivered to the plant was new stoping ore, with an average grade of 7.9 grams/tonne. In order to maintain monthly plant throughput of at least 12,500 tonnes it was necessary to process earlier run-of-mine ore which contained lower grades of gold.
The company also said that in March 2017 the reserves and resources of the Asacha deposit were re-approved by the State Commission of Reserves (GKZ) according to Russian classification. C1 and C2 gold reserves totaled 623,943 ounces with a grade of 19.8 grams/tonne and silver reserves of just under 1.477 million ounces with a grade of 46.8 grams/tonne. The cut-off grade is 2 grams/tonne. There are no remaining P1 or P2 resources.
Trans-Siberian Gold production results:
| Q1 2017 | Q1 2016 | Change | |
| Ore mined, '000 tonnes | 46,155 | 44,067 | 5% |
| Ore processed, '000 tonnes | 44,320 | 40,300 | 10% |
| Average gold grade, grams/tonne | 5.35 | 7.38 | -28% |
| Average silver grade, grams/tonne | 8.99 | 10.75 | -16% |
| Gold recovery rate | 94.24% | 94.95% | -0.71 p.p. |
| Silver recovery rate | 76.69% | 77.36% | -0.67 p.p. |
| Gold in dore, ounces | 7,246 | 9,202 | -21% |
| Silver in dore, ounces | 10,148 | 10,818 | -6% |
| Refined gold, '000 ounces | 7,644 | 9,343 | -18% |
| Refined silver, '000 ounces | 12,356 | 11,542 | 7% |
TSG's majority shareholder is investment firm UFG Asset Management, holding a 79.62% stake, Firebird Funds owns 2.52% and 6.38% belongs to company directors. The company's shares are sold on the London Stock Exchange AIM market.