Record quarterly gold output drove Caledonia Mining Corporation to a 29% rise in half-year output, keeping the company on track to meet its annual targets.
Blanket Mine produced 20,091 ounces in the quarter to June, 20% higher than in the same time last year. This is the most gold that the mine has ever produced in a quarter, the company says in its latest production update.
Gold produced for the first half of 2022 was 38,606 ounces, which is 29% more than the 29,907 ounces that Blanket produced in the first half of 2021.
“Production in the first half of 2022 was excellent and exceeded our expectations. Production excludes an estimate of approximately 1,500 ounces of recoverable gold included in an ore stockpile which will be processed after the commissioning of additional milling capacity in the next few weeks,” according to Dana Roets, Caledonia’s Chief Operating Officer.
“We have now achieved our quarterly target of 20,000 ounces and are on track to hit our annual production target of between 73,000 – 80,000 ounces of gold.”
Caledonia’s growth is due to investment in the new central shaft. Caledonia last year completed the deepening of the Blanket shaft, using internally generated cash. This has driven annual gold output from 54,512 ounces in 2018.
The company is also now looking to develop a new mine to add to Blanket. Caledonia has bought Maligreen, a claim near Gweru, which has an inferred resource of 940,000 ounces of gold.
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