Newcrest Mining has delivered production records at three of its mines, the Cadia gold mine in New South Wales, Telfer copper-gold mine in Western Australia and Lihir copper-gold mine in Papua New Guinea.
Lihir saw a record quarterly mill throughput of 307,000oz, record annualised mill throughput of 16 million tonnes a year (Mt/y) for the quarter, and a record-low all-in sustaining cost (ASIC) of $724/oz. It represented the third straight year of annual gold production growth at the project, which employs over 4000 people.
Cadia saw a record monthly production and mill throughput in June of annualised rates exceeding 30Mt/y, suggesting a quick recovery from the effects of a tailings slump in March 2018 that led to reduced activity and targets.
In addition, the Telfer copper-gold mine, located in the Eastern Pilbara region, achieved annual (FY18) records for total material movement, tonnes crushed and tonnes milled in the quarter, contributing to a 35 per cent quarterly boost in gold production to 120,100oz.
Production across all of Newcrest’s underground mines was up by 17 per cent over the previous quarter.
Newcrest managing director Sandeep Biswas called it “a quarter to be proud of”.
“We continue to progress options for profitable growth, including our organic growth options,” he said.
“The Environmental Impact Statement for Wafi-Golpu was submitted and the tender process for early works for the next Cadia block cave has commenced.
“We strive to safely operate our assets to their full potential and this quarter reflected the benefits of our safety program, our Edge performance improvement program, and our people whom I thank for their hard work to make this possible.”