The company said plant throughput totaled 73,221 tonnes, a 54% spike from the first quarter of 2020. Additionally, that throughput total included six weeks in January and February when average tonnes per day were in the 1,000 range, another 18 days exceeding 1,100t/d, eight days exceeding 1,200t/d and a daily record of 1,315t/d.
Production for the March quarter included 17,774 ounces of gold, 426,153 pounds of copper and 7,925oz of silver.
K92 said its long hole stoping at Kainantu is continuing positively at both the K1 and K2 veins. This is, it added, despite a three-week stoppage of stoping operations in March which recommenced near the end of the quarter.
The miner also suffered an incident involving an underground loader that deferred production from four high-grade stopes and left the plant to treat a larger amount of lower-grade stockpile material.
Finally, operations were impacted by a mid-January to late-February shortage of bulk emulsion explosives resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic; that issue was separate from the forced travel restrictions in PNG.
"This was addressed through utilizing less productive alternative explosives (ANFO and packaged explosives) and supplementing mill feed from lower grade stockpiles," officials said of the supply chain problem's solution.
"A significant shipment of bulk emulsion explosives arrived on-site in late-February, the supplier has diversified sources and is expected to commence domestic production in May, nearby in Lae, to totally mitigate this issue."
