ravenswood
The Ravenswood gold mine is located approximately 95km south-west of Townsville and 65km east of Charters Towers in north-east Queensland. Resolute has a 100% interest in the mine through its subsidiary Carpentaria Gold Pty Ltd.
Ore for the Ravenswood Operations was sourced from the Sarsfield open pit, low-grade oxide stockpiles and the Mt Wright underground mine. The ore is treated using conventional three stage crushing, ball-milling and carbon-in-pulp processing at the rate of 5Mtpa.
Operations
During the 2009 financial year, the operation produced 151,913 (2008: 142,833) ounces of gold at a cash cost of A$762 (2008: A$743). The main reason for the higher cash cost per ounce is due to the higher unit mining costs associated with mining at the bottom of the pit and lower production rates resulting from a lower strip ratio of 0.98:1 (2008: 1.45:1) whilst mining in the confined base of the pit. Partly offsetting this was the increase in ounces due to the higher average head grade and improved recovery.
Total material movement from the Sarsfield open pit was approximately 1.8 (2008: 3.6) million cubic metres. The lower mine production was due to the Sarsfield open cut operations ceasing in February 2009 as economic ore reserves were fully depleted. Ore production was 2.57 million tonnes at 1.12g/t. The Sarsfield pit is now being used as the tailings disposal facility.
The Mt Wright underground project, which continues to progress to expectations, developed 4,171 (2008: 3,824) metres and produced 547,724 (2008: 474,282) tonnes @ 2.43g/t (2008: 2.24g/t) Au. Ore tonnes were sourced from five stopes during the year with the completion of the H7, L8 and N8 stopes.
Resource drilling has upgraded the resource at Mt Wright from indicated to measured to the 880 RL and converted the resource from inferred to indicated to the 840 RL.
For the period the processing plant treated 5.0 (2008: 5.0) million tonnes at an average head grade of 1.11g/t (2008: 1.07g/t) Au. Recovery improved to an average 85% (2008: 83%). The gain in recovery can be attributed to improved carbon management and tails monitoring.
Since closure of the Sarsfield pit in February, the processing plant has successfully continued to treat ore at a rate of 5.0 million tonnes per annum by blending Mt Wright ore with low grade stocks left from Sarsfield.
Outlook
While the milling priority will be the higher grade Mt Wright ore, it will continue to operate at approximately 5 million tonnes per annum by processing low grade stocks left over from the Sarsfield open pit. Due to the significant percentage of low grade Sarsfield ore, the overall head grade will drop to below 1g/t.
Planning and design work for reconfiguration of the plant for reduced throughput (Mt Wright only) post completion of the Sarsfield low grade will occur during the year.
Mt Wright underground will continue development and increase production while detailed planning work continues to improve the overall efficiency and profitability of the operation.
