Development Of Activities At South Arturo Gold Mine

 

THUNDER BAY, ON – Premier Gold Mines Ltd. reported ongoing development activities at the Company's 40%-owned South Arturo Mine, located in the Carlin Trend, Nevada . The South Arturo Mine is a joint venture between Premier and Barrick Gold Corporation's wholly-owned subsidiary, Barrick Gold Exploration Inc.  Barrick is the operator of South Arturo and will process its ore at their Goldstrike Mine processing facility located 5 kilometers to the south.

Development of the mine, including a capitalized pre-stripping program and associated site preparation for the Phase 2 open pit, remains on schedule. Initial ore mining will ramp up in Q3 with Premier attributable gold production estimated at 80,000 ounces in 2016.  

At the end of Q1, the Arturo open pit had reached the 5440 elevation, with 32.3 million tons of pre-stripping remaining to be completed to reach the 5200 elevation, which has been established as the boundary between pre-stripping and ore production.  Mining costs decreased 6.3% in the quarter from $1.42 /ton budgeted to $1.33 /ton, mostly due to favorable consumables costs and a company-wide cost savings program that is being implemented by Barrick.  

"We are extremely pleased with the progress being made at the South Arturo Project and the excellent performance being realized by our joint venture partner" stated Ewan Downie on the Company's C-Suite Blog.” 

Additional production opportunities include the potential future development of another open pit and possibly an underground mine on the Property.  Barrick is currently seeking to optimize a possible heap leach mining scenario proximal to the historic Dee pit.  Cubex drilling and bulk sampling from targeted areas around the existing Dee pit and the underground portal at the historic Storm mine will be used to complete more detailed metallurgical test work in 2016.