PRECIOUS METALS

Victoria Gold withdraws production, cost guidance

Victoria's conveyor belt issues are expected to continue for two-to-three weeks

No run of mine ore tonnes were hauled directly from the open pit to the heap leach facility in Q3, which compares to a total of 1.1 million tonnes RON in the same quarter last year.

No run of mine ore tonnes were hauled directly from the open pit to the heap leach facility in Q3, which compares to a total of 1.1 million tonnes RON in the same quarter last year.

It's expected that it'll take another two or three weeks for the issues to be resolved.

"The Company had previously expected full-year 2022 production to be close to the lower end of the guidance range of 165,000 ounces. If not for the conveyor belt failure, the mine was on track to meet guidance," the company said.

The top end of the guidance had been 190,000oz. Eagle is the company's only mine in production.

"Due to the estimated length of time required to replace the overland conveyor belt, the Company anticipates it will no longer achieve production or cost guidance," it said.

Before being withdrawn, all-in sustaining cost guidance was US$1,225 and US$1,425 per oz of gold sold.

The company produced 50,028oz of gold in Q3, which is down from 55,827oz from the same period last year.

The 1.5 kilometre overland conveyor that links and delivers ore from the crushing plant to the heap leach facility experienced a slice failure of the main belt on 29 September.

No run of mine ore tonnes were hauled directly from the open pit to the heap leach facility in Q3, which compares to a total of 1.1 million tonnes RON in the same quarter last year.

"After review of the overall condition of the belting, it has been determined that the best course of action is to replace, rather than repair, the belting," the company said.

"Due to the length of the belt and number of sections to be spliced, it is anticipated that crushing, conveying and stacking operations will be down between two to three weeks.

"During this temporary outage, opportune maintenance on the crushing circuits will be performed. Mining and ADR plant operations are not impacted and continue to perform normally," it said.

Victoria plans to provide updated guidance following full resumption of operations.

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