Persistently low head grades at the Hayden Hill mine have prompted Amax Gold (NYSE) to suspend milling temporarily.
The mine, near Susanville, Calif., started up in the third quarter of 1992 and has since operated with lower-than-expected head grades. The cash operating cost was US$432 per oz. in 1992; it increased to to US$653 per oz. in the first quarter of 1993.
Amax plans to continue heap-leaching while engineers work to determine the best operational procedure to adopt. Heap leach production totaled 3,759 oz. in the first quarter and is expected to reach 12,000 oz. in the second.
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