QUARTERLY ACTIVITIES REPORT: DECEMBER 2011 (Download here)
CORPORATE
- Group gold production for the Quarter was 34,211oz, inclusive of an attributable 12,779oz from the Laverton operations.
- Coolgardie delivered revenue of A$33.3M from gold sales of 19,922oz at an average price of A$1,670/oz.
- Laverton delivered gross sales revenue of $26.3M from sales of 15,666oz produced in the December Quarter at an average price of $1,676/oz.
- Capital investment and exploration expenditure at Coolgardie for the Quarter totalled $10.48M, comprising $6.23M of mine capital development and $4.25M of exploration expenditure.
- At the end of the Quarter, Focus had cash and bullion equivalents of $14.3M and remains hedge free.
OPERATIONS
Coolgardie, Western Australia
- Coolgardie Operations produced 21,432oz at a cash cost of $1,076/oz compared to a cash cost of $977/oz in the previous Quarter. Operating costs were adversely affected by an unscheduled mill reline and shutdown costs incurred during December.
- Second best Quarter on record mining 231,878t @ 3.15g/t for 23,463oz.
- The Mount delivered its best Quarter since entering production mining 6,047oz, a 29% increase on the September Quarter.
- The commencement of development of the Big Blow open pit saw the Tindals Open Pits deliver 3,967oz, despite the impact of unseasonal rain which impacted 15 days production during October and November.
- The Tindals underground mine delivered 13,449oz for the Quarter with the month of December being the strongest in the 2011 Calendar Year for ounces produced.
- 13,859m of infill and resource/reserve extension diamond drilling was completed at Tindals Underground with 5,015m drilled at surface targets at Tindals.
- The Three Mile Hill mill delivered another solid Quarter with 298,876t processed at an average gold recovery of 95.4%.
- During the Quarter, Focus commenced a major capital works program to expand the tailings dam at Three Mile Hill.
Laverton
- The Laverton operations mined 445,120t @ 2.53g/t for gold in ore of 36,229oz in the December Quarter.
- A total of 411,012t @ 1.32g/t was processed over the 32 day campaign under the Ore Purchasing Agreement at Barrick Granny Smith (a daily gold production of 490oz, equivalent to 98,000ozpa based on Crescent’s allocated 200 processing days per calendar year).
- This saw the Laverton operations produce a total of 15,666oz of gold with 12,779oz attributable to Focus.
- Crescent achieved an average gold sale price of A$1,676/oz to deliver gross sales revenue of $26.3m.
- Cash operating costs for the Quarter were $1,467/oz, a reduction of $129 on the September Quarter’s costs of $1,596/oz.
- Commenced pre-strip and development of the Apollo pits, where Crescent has an Ore Reserve of 1.06Mt @ 1.9g/t for 64,000oz.
- Stockpiled 353,800t @ 1.84g/t at the ROM pad at Granny Smith by the end of the Quarter in preparation for Campaign 10. The 50 day campaign commenced on 8 January 2012.
- Development studies focused on the Apollo, Eclipse, Calypso, Aurora, and Lord Byron deposits with 8,529m of RC and 780m of diamond drilling.
EXPLORATION
Coolgardie
- Drilling in the Undaunted area confirmed depth extensions with best intersections including: 11m @ 5.4g/t; 14m @ 4.8g/t; 4m @ 6.5g/t; 5m @ 6.0g/t; 8m @ 4.8g/t and 2m @ 15.8g/t.
- Drilling at the Norris Project, 15km southwest of Coolgardie identified at least two sub parallel mineralised zones.
- Extensive target generation exercise undertaken across the northern half of the Coolgardie tenement package identifying numerous targets for which Heritage surveys were completed for many of the targets.
Treasure Island
- Preliminary results from aircore programme identified second gold bearing system running through the project.
- In fill reconnaissance drilling commenced late in the Quarter with a second aircore rig on site to test a palaeochannel system to the north of the island.
Laverton
- Regional geochemistry sampling continued on selected tenements and areas plus a small drilling programme located on the southern extensions of the Chatterbox Shear system.