North American Palladium (NAP) reports making “significant progress” in advancing the its mine expansion at its Lac des Iles (LDI) mine in northwestern Ontario.
The Toronto-based miner is undergoing a major expansion at its flagship mine, north of Thunder Bay, to increase production and cut its costs per ounce.
The company spent $148.3 million there last year.
In a year-end statement, the company said it remains on schedule to commission a new shaft at the end of 2012.
The shaft will allow for an increase underground mining rate to 3,500 tonnes per day at the beginning of 2013, and then gradually increase its rate to 5,500 tonnes by 2015.
A $15 million capital lease line has been established to fund new equipment.
“With significant development milestones achieved in 2011 and through the mine expansion investments that we plan to make in 2012, by the end of this year NAP will have established a solid foundation for steady production growth for many years to come,” said William Biggar, NAP president and CEO, in a Feb. 23 year-end statement outlining the 2011 results.
Last year, LDI produced 146,624 ounces of palladium from more than 1.68 million tonnes of ore at an average palladium head grade at the mill of 3.7 grams per tonne.
During the year, the company spent $10 million in exploration at LDI to expand its Offset Zone through infill drilling and to identify potential surface targets.
NAP also announced that it has named David Peck at the head of exploration.
Peck brings 30 years of exploration and research experience to the job, most recently as president and senior technical consultant at Revelation Geoscience.
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