Oakmount and Partners Ltd. NQ Minerals Newsletter 04/08/2020

 

 

The company said its Hellyer gold mine in Tasmania produced a total of 8,762 tonnes of lead concentrate in the three months ended June 30, 2020, while zinc concentrate volumes amounted to 4,241 tonnes. 

 

It also produced 1,223 ounces of gold and 229,947 ounces of silver in the quarter, with sales payable precious via credits in the lead and zinc concentrate streams. 

 

READ: NQ Minerals hails impact of Tasmania mine enhancements 

NQ told investors that it generated A$30mln from mining operations, with operating gross profit coming in at A$12mln. 

 

Significantly, NQ confirmed that major upgrade and optimisation work was undertaken at Helyer in late June to increase production capacity, and the company noted that plant throughput increases by 44% to over 1.3mln tonnes per year (1.2mln tonnes at 92% plant availability). 

 

“NQ's Hellyer operations have performed extremely well last quarter, especially considering the current global COVID-19 pandemic,” David Lenigas, NQ chairman said in a statement. 

 

He added: “The end of June production rate increase at the processing plant to 150 tonnes per hour was a big step forward at Hellyer and has been very successfully implemented. It will have a very significant and immediate impact on future revenues." 

 

Lenigas also noted that the Tasmanian government responded quickly to the coronavirus pandemic and was the first Australian state able to keep the number of confirmed infections very low.