Azerbaijan, Baku, May 3 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
Kazakh Hambledon Mining plc gold company increased gold and silver production in the first quarter of 2013 compared to the same period of 2012, the company reported.
The company's gold production increased by 4.4 percent to 5,084 oz in this period, silver production increased by 28 percent to 6,448 oz.
"The increase in gold production was driven by a higher recovery rate of 85.8 percent (78.0 percent in the same period of 2012), which resulted from the optimization of the processing flow and efficient measures implemented by the new management team," the company said.
During the quarter of 2013, mining activities continued to be centered on open pit mining, which was the sole source of material for the processing plant. Some 133,877 tons of ore with an average gold grade of 1.38 gram/ton was milled during the quarter. This represents a slight increase over the comparable quarter of last year when 131,576 tons of ore with an average grade 1.18 gram/ton was milled from the open pit.
Moreover, according to the company, it has been prepared new mining plan for the underground mine.
"Under the previous management, underground operations were suspended...The new management is committed to the development of the underground mine and work was restarted in January," the company said.
According to Hambledon Mining plc, in total, 30,650 meters were drilled as of March 31, 2013, the company said.
"Management is encouraged by early drilling results and is targeting a considerable increase in underground gold resources following completion of the drilling program in 2013," the company said.
Hambledon Mining plc is a gold mining and development group, which is operating the Sekisovskoye gold mine close to Ust Kamenogorsk in East Kazakhstan.
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