Victoria Gold (TSX: VGCX) announced on Wednesday that production at the Eagle gold mine had reached 77,748 ounces during its first six months of commercial production, exceeding its revised H2 2020 guidance of 72,000-77,000 ounces.
Production for Q4 2020 came to 42,174 ounces, which was the best quarterly output recorded at Eagle and about 20% higher than Q3. For the entire year, the mine produced 116,644 ounces of gold.
At the Eagle mine site, ore placement on the heap leach pad increased by more than 20% quarter over quarter, including over one million tonnes of ore stacked on the pad in December.
As per Victoria’s seasonal operations plan, ore stacking on the leach pad has been curtailed from January through March, the coldest time of the year in the Yukon.
During this 90-day period, mining operations, primary crushing and stockpiling of ore will all continue. Leaching and gold production will also continue as usual. Subject to favourable weather conditions, ore stacking may resume ahead of schedule.
According to Victoria, shutdown of the secondary crushing and stacking systems will provide the company opportunity to finalize the optimization program that began in fall 2020.
The Eagle mine poured its first gold in Q3 2019 and achieved commercial production on July 1, 2020. At full production, it is expected to produce 210,000 ounces of gold annually.