Mongolia-focused Steppe Gold has received reagents and is now able to resume full production at its ATO gold mine.

The company was unable to secure necessary reagents for processing for all of 2021 because of COVID-19 lockdowns and border closures, particularly in regard to Chinese borders.

With the receipt of the reagents, Steppe Gold has now been able to restart heap leach ore processing.

"The company continued its mining, crushing, and stacking operations throughout 2021," Steppe Gold chief executive Bataa Tumur-Ochir said.

The company now has inventory with over 81,842 ounces of estimated recoverable gold to be leached, as well as high-grade oxide ores in the active pits, he added.

The inventories are on the leach pad, ROM pad, and blast ores on the pit floor. As of the start of March, the company has over 2.45 million tonnes of ore stacked on the leach and ROM pads.

On the leach pad, Steppe Gold has stockpiled 795,461 tonnes at 1.90 g/t of gold that remains to be leached.

An additional 451,580 tonnes at 1.15 g/t of gold are awaiting processing on the ROM pad.

On the pit floors, the company has stockpiled 569,604 tonnes at 2.09 g/t of gold of both blasted and unmined more; these will be transported to the ROM and leach pad.

Steppe Gold has produced 45,655 ounces of gold over the course of production, with a recovery rate of 58%.

The 81,842 ounces of upcoming production estimated by the company is based on a 70% recovery rate.

Steppe Gold plans to produce over 100,000 ounces of gold from oxide zones in 2022 and 2023.

The company plans to fast-track its Phase 2 construction of the ATO gold mine.

In an October 2021 feasibility study, Steppe Gold estimated it could expand Steppe Gold's mine life to 12.5 years, and will install a 2.5 million tonne per annum fixed crusher.

The expansion project will produce first concentrates in the December quarter of 2023.