Blackham Resources’ record gold production continues for a third month

Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) has posted record gold production for a third consecutive month at its Matilda-Wiluna operation in Western Australia.

Gold production for March rose 11% from 6,713 ounces in February to 7,419 oz, with mill feed grade also rising slightly to 1.6 grams per tonne gold.

“The March operational results demonstrate a continuation of the step change in project economics that commenced in December 2017,” Blackham executive chairman Milan Jerkovic said.

This third consecutive month of mounting production has resulted in a record output for the March quarter.

Adding to the record production was cuts to cash costs with Blackham achieving an all in sustaining cost of A$1,092 per ounce for the quarter.

The average realised gold price for the period was A$1,669/oz.

This compares to the December quarter last year where production costs were A$1,882/oz for an average gold price of A$1,630/oz.

Blackham has attributed its recent success to accessing higher grade zones at M4 and Galaxy pits, as well as increasing throughput and other efficiencies.

“Record production and significantly reduced costs underpinned a quarter of strong operational cash flows, while building stockpiles,” Mr Jerkovic said.

He added the company was confident that 2018 would remain a “transformational” year for the operation – generating “significant operating cash flows”.

Looking ahead, Blackham has sold 27,400oz of gold under forward sales contracts for the next nine months, which will command A$1,724/oz.

Blackham has estimated it swill produce up to 45,000oz gold for the current half year period at a all in sustaining cost between A$1,100/oz and A$1,200/oz.

Matilda-Wiluna gold operation

Blackham owns 1,100 square kilometres of tenements which make up the Matilda-Wiluna project. The project contains about 6.5 million ounces of contained gold at an average grade of 3.1 grams per tonne.

Of that resource, 1.2moz of contained gold reserves have been delineated.

The company published a pre-feasibility study into expanding the operation in August last year, which predicts an initial nine-year mine life.

Production during this period is estimated at 1.47moz gold which is calculated to generated about A$571 million in cash flow based on a gold price of A$1,600/oz.