Kirkland Lake Gold’s 2013 fiscal year was a challenging one, according to its chairman Harry Dobson.
“However, (the company) had strong gold production of 31,503 ounces in the fourth quarter, as the service cage project completed and nearly doubled daily hoisting capacity from 1,000 to 1,800 tons per day,” he said.
“During fiscal 2014, the company will continue to implement its expansion plans to reach production of 2,200 tons ore per day, and with this throughput rate reduce its direct and all in costs of gold production. To this end, with expansion capital spending and activities 90 per cent behind us, and exploration spending and activities also reducing to a more sustainable level, the management team is focused on delivering increasingly solid quarters of operational performance going forward.”
The company generated $24.6 million in cash flows from operations during the 2013 fiscal year compared to $51.2 million in fiscal 2012. This was mainly due to lower revenue combined with higher non-production costs such as interest and finance expense. ?
For the year, 304,062 tons of ore were produced at a head grade of 0.31 opt and a gold recovery rate of 95.72 per cent to produce 91,518 ounces. The yearly tonnage of ore produced was a record for the company and the mine.
Gold poured for the year was 91,786 ounces and a total of 91,771 ounces was sold at an average price of $1,653.
The workforce totalled 1,059 as of the end of April, an increase of 83 in the quarter, and an increase of 152 over the year. By the completion of the mine expansion project, the company expects to employ approximately 1,250 people. Contractor employment is expected to drop by roughly 100 positions at the same time.
Fiscal 2014 will see a transition for the Kirkland Lake Operation from being an exploration and expansion project first, with a producing mine in support, to being a producing mine first, with an exploration and expansion project in support.
