TVX Gold eager to join million-ounce club

Management of TVX Gold (TSE) will use its “killer instinct” to produce more than 1 million oz. gold annually by 1998, Chairman Eike Batista told shareholders at the annual meeting in Toronto.

“We should be crossing and exceeding the barrier of 1 million oz. per year by 1998,” he said. This milestone should be achieved at a cash cost of $US170 per oz., he added.

TVX’s 1994 gold and gold equivalent production totalled 436,900 oz. at an average cash cost of US$199 per oz., down from 439,000 oz. at US$172 the previous year.

Batista’s explosive growth forecasts are based on an increase in contained resources, which jumped 42% to 8.1 million oz. in 1994. Recent European acquisitions Kassandra Mines in Greece and the Kasperske Hory gold deposit in the Czech Republic will also make a significant contribution to TVX’s production level.

“TVX will be the largest gold producer in Europe if the Greek and Czech deposits go into production,” Batista said. “Kassandra will be TVX’s future flagship.”

(The 50% owned La Coipa gold-silver mine in Chile, which contributed 45% of production in 1994, is currently the company’s largest producer.) TVX paid US$47 million for the lead-zinc-silver Kassandra Mines in northeastern Greece with the intention of exploiting the refractory gold content (T.N.M., March. 27/95). Current precious metal reserves total 2.8 million oz. gold and 500,000 oz. silver. The orebodies are massive sulphide replacement deposits hosted by Paleozoic marble units and crossed by aplite dykes and sills.

Southwest of Prague in the Czech Republic, underground development and exploration are under way at Kasperske Hory. A production decision on the deposit, which contains proven and probable reserves of about 1 million tons grading 0.18 oz. gold per ton, is expected by 1996.

On the home front, TVX plans to open its next mine New Brittania in Manitoba this autumn. The past-producing gold project is a 50-50 joint venture with High River Gold Mines (TSE).

Batista said a production decision on the Musselwhite gold project in northwestern Ontario, a joint venture with Toronto-listed Placer Dome (TSE), is expected in early 1996.

Meanwhile, expansion work is ongoing at TVX’s 60%-owned Casa Berardi gold operation in northwestern Quebec.