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Campbell recently started hauling ore from the two new pits at Santa Gertrudis, El Toro Norte and Mirador, where reserves had been drilled off in 1999. The company is assessing a third deposit, which lies on the property’s La Peque-Escondida fault zone, for additional production.
Altogether, Campbell expects to see 22,500 oz. from Santa Gertrudis in 2000. Cash production costs are forecast at US$233 per oz.
Production is currently suspended at the Joe Mann mine, south of Chibougamau, Que., to allow for additional development of workings and for conversion from shrinkage stoping to cut-and-fill. But development work promises to be done ahead of schedule, permitting production to resume earlier than had been planned.
Under a recently approved 5-year mine plan, Campbell shut down production in November 1999 with the intention of resuming in the middle of 2000. New workings needed for the conversion to cut-and-fill mining were to be driven during the suspension, but that work has gone quickly enough to allow the mine to begin hoisting ore again around the end of March.
Over the three productive quarters of 2000, Campbell is forecasting 63,500 oz. will be poured at Joe Mann, against the 51,300 oz. produced in 11 months in 1999. The new mine plan looks for an average of 90,000 oz. annually over the three succeeding years.
Cut-and-fill mining should improve ground conditions at Joe Mann and thus allow the company to shave mining widths underground. The expected lower dilution from cut-and-fill stopes could increase millhead grade and bring down costs. Campbell is shooting for US$225 per oz., down from US$295 in 1999, and for an average of US$220 between 2001 and 2003.
Campbell expects ongoing development costs to decline under the new plan, and has budgeted $5.3 million for the year, including the $3.6 million that is being spent on preproduction development in the first quarter.
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