MINING REFINING

Northern Star sees ramp up in gold sales as output expands

Tue April 23 2024

Australian miner Northern Star Resources expects to “significantly increase” gold sales this quarter on higher production and better grades from its Kalgoorlie operations, including the Super Pit, as prices for the precious metal trade near record levels.

Increasing ore supply is a key goal for Northern Star, the nation’s largest listed gold miner. While the Perth-based company didn’t provide a sales forecast for the June quarter in a production report released Tuesday, full-year guidance for 2024 remained unchanged at 1.6-million to 1.75-million ounces of gold sales.

Miners are capitalising on a surge in bullion prices, which have rallied sharply since mid-February. Gold notched a record above $2,400 an ounce earlier in April as rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East stoked demand for haven assets, while strong appetite in China has also supported the metal.

Northern Star increased its guidance on costs for 2024 earlier this month, after significant weather events impacted its Western Australia operations. In March, the miner sought approval to expand and extend the life of its flagship Super Pit project to 2034, after committing A$1.5-billion to more than double processing capacity at its Kalgoorlie operations.

Northern Star’s shares fell as much as 4.5%, the most since January, in early trading on Tuesday after its quarterly production report showed unplanned outages at its Pogo project in Alaska resulted in lower mining and processing volumes.

Source: https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/