Gulf starts at Sheikh Adi-2 25/05/2012
Iraq-focused oil explorer Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) has begun drilling at the Sheikh Adi-2 well in the Sheikh Adi block.
Vatukoula Gold Mines upped production from Fiji by 46 per cent to 38,402 oz in the nine months to May.
David Paxton, the company's entrepreneurial chief executive officer, says technical problems in the South Pacific island nation prevented it from reaching its target output rate and suggests gold production from the Vatukoula mine in the year to August is likely to come out at 54,000 to 55,000 oz, rather than a previously projected 60,000 oz. However, he says the company remains confident of achieving its planned annual production rate of 100,000 oz during 2011.
According to Vatukoula, cash costs before finance and investment were an average $679 an ounce over the whole nine months, against $927 a year earlier, though costs rose to $751 an ounce for the third quarter alone, up from $684 oz a year earlier. The company increased nine-month gold sales by 34.5 per cent to 35,391 oz and turned a £1.2 million net mine loss into net mine earnings of £7.3 million over the nine months.
Citing an existing formally estimated gold resource of 4.3 million oz at 10 grammes of gold per tonne of ore, Paxton says Vatukoula has £4 million in the bank and intends to embark on further exploration to increase that resource. Highlighted by Growth Company Investor last year at 1.1p, the shares now trade at 2.05p, down from a year’s high of 2.59p, and retain speculative potential.
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