St Barbara reports notable Q4 production gains from New Simberi JV
ASX-listed gold miner St Barbara has reported an 8% increase in gold production from the New Simberi mine, in Papua New Guinea, in the three months ended June 30, compared with the prior quarter.
With New Simberi being jointly owned by St Barbara (50%), China's Lingbao Gold Group (30%), and PNG's Kumul Mineral Holdings (20%), St Barbara's attributable production for the reporting quarter was 7 329 oz, from a total 14658 oz produced.
This exceeded St Barbara's guidance of between 5600 oz and 6800 oz from New Simberi in the quarter.
Overall, New Simberi had gold sales of 13339 oz in the quarter at a realised gold price of A$6314/oz in the quarter.
The full-year production for the operation came to 48395 oz, while sales totalled 47280 oz.
Notably, New Simberi's processed tonnes improved by 19% quarter-on-quarter with an average processing feed grade of 1 g/t.
While ore mined decreased by 17% quarter-on-quarter owing to removal of backfill waste material in the Pigibo openpit, this was offset by the 12% higher mined grade in the reporting quarter.
St Barbara's total attributable cash, bullion and listed investments were A$509-million in the quarter, including A$18-million from the sale of 6700 attributable ounces from New Simberi at an average gold price of A$6314/oz.
St Barbara continues to have no bank debt and no hedging. The company will release its full quarterly report later in July.
