Wiluna Mining’s Williamson Open Pit set for steady-state gold production next month

Wiluna Mining Corporation (ASX:WMX) (OTCMKTS:BKHRF), formerly known as Blackham Resources Ltd (ASX:BLK), expects its Williamson Open Pit within the Wiluna Mining Operation to reach a steady-state production profile next month. During the company's transition phase from free-milling into Stage 1 Sulphide production, the open pit is a significant contributor to the Wiluna production profile. As part of the sulphide program, recent high-grade drill intercepts from Golden Age Underground drilling programs are expected to increase the mine's monthly production rate from 6,500 tonnes to 15,000 tonnes during the first quarter of the 2021 financial year. The company, which changed its name to reflect its ownership of the Wiluna Mining Operation, said it was placing suitable resources to ensure equipment and manning support planned production rates. Wiluna started trading under its new name on Thursday, June 18, 2020. It added that crushing and milling circuits were consistently running at around 20% above nameplate throughput capacity and that open pit mining movements were meeting expectations in this quarter. Further, construction work on the new tailings dam has been completed. Wiluna is 12 months into a 24-month transitional period towards September 2021 when the commencement of gold production from its higher grade, long-dated underground sulphide mineral resources is scheduled to begin. During the transition period, Wiluna aims to annually produce approximately 60,000 ounces from its existing free milling deposits. This production profile will provide valuable cashflow and production continuity prior to the transition into producing 110,000-120,000 ounces annually of gold concentrate. Production guidance In its operations update, Wiluna lowered its production guidance for the 2020 financial year to around 61,500 ounces at an approximate AISC of A$1,975 per ounce. It said the lower guidance was due to the current short-term operating issues which had delayed production at the Williamson Open Pit and Golden Age Underground mines into the next financial year. At Williamson, delayed access to high-grade ore pushed gold production originally scheduled for June into July, resulting in mining activities being directed to three very small pits at Wiluna to deliver immediate higher-grade ore to the plant. Ore from all three pits had grade reconciliation issues resulting in processing of lower than expected grade ore in June, it added. It said equipment and manning issues had constrained underground production at Golden Age, resulting in some production scheduled for June to be mined in the next quarter. These issues have also resulted in existing low-grade stockpiles being processed, lowering grade, recoveries and increasing the AISC per ounce for the June quarter.