from early July through early August, delivered $36 million worth of gold and silver to Contango. “Having exceeded Contango’s internal production expectations from the first batch, we can now look forward to two more batches planned in the Fall for the remainder of 2024,” said Contango ORE President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse. Over a one-month period, the Kinross Alaska mill at Fort Knox processed 190,040 metric tons of Manh Choh ore averaging 9.46 grams per metric ton gold. With the reconfigured mill recovering 95 percent of the gold from oxidized ores, approximately 55,000 ounces of gold and 11,000 ounces of silver were produced during this initial batch. Contango’s share of this production comes to 16,200 ounces of gold and 3,300 ounces of silver. Out of this, approximately 8,900 ounces of gold were delivered into the company’s hedges at an average price of $2,025/ounce and 5,800 ounces were sold at an average price of $2,440/ounce. In addition, Alaska’s newest gold-producing company received 3,128 oz of silver, which was sold for an average price of $27.58 / ounce. The balance of the gold and silver remains in recoverable inventory at Fort Knox and will be included during the processing of the second batch of Manh Choh ore later this year. In total, Contango received $36 million from selling its share of gold and silver produced from the first batch of Manh Choh ore. “I would like to acknowledge and thank Kinross, and in particular both the Manh Choh and Fort Knox teams, for achieving this important milestone,” said Van Nieuwenhuyse. With two more batches of ore scheduled to be processed before the end of the year, Contango expects to receive a total of 30,000 and 40,000 ounces of gold from Manh Choh in 2024. “Assuming we can meet these production targets, and the price of gold remains at current levels, the company expects to be in a strong cash position by the end of the year after funding working capital and delivering into our hedges,” Van Nieuwenhuyse added. “We then look forward to executing on our ‘Hybrid Royalty’ model focusing on our Lucky Shot and Johnson Tract properties, which we believe can both be developed efficiently by using our DSO (Direct Shipping Ore) approach.” “Mining and transportation of ore mined at Manh Choh continues to be delivered to the stockpile at Fort Knox and at this stage we believe all-in- sustaining-costs remain in line with the feasibility study,” Van Nieuwenhuyse added.
www.alaskaminers.org I The Alaska Miner I September 2024
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