Lima—Canada's Lundin Gold produced 242,400 oz of gold in its first year of production at its $2.7 billion Fruta del Norte gold-silver mine in Ecuador, beating its revised 2020 guidance, the company said Jan. 12.
The mine's mill in Ecuador's southeastern Zamora Chinchipe province, which started operating in late 2019, was operating at 3,665 mt/d with recovery rates of 88.6% and ore grades running at 10.1 g/mt in the fourth quarter, the Vancouver-based company said in a statement. Fruta del Norte produced 96,830 oz of gold in Q4, Lundin said.The mine, which was hampered by both a coronavirus lockdown and community roadblocks last year, was expected to produce 200,000-220,000 oz of gold in 2020.
"The grades mined, recoveries and average throughput were all better than expected during the fourth quarter. This enabled us to exceed the upper end of our gold production guidance," CEO Ron Hochstein said in the statement. Lundin "is focused on continuing to optimize our operations in the year ahead. Work is also well underway on the throughput expansion project," he added.
The mine, which was inaugurated in November 2019 and reached commercial production in February 2020, has set 2021 guidance at 380,000-420,000 oz of gold. Lundin plans an $18.6 million expansion of the mine this year to boost throughput by 20%, in addition to an $11 million, 9,000-meter drilling program at its Barbasco and Puente-Princesa targets.
