Newcrest Mining has cut its production forecasts after the partial collapse of a dam wall at the Cadia mine last month.
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Its March quarterly report released on Thursday said gold production was down six per cent and copper production was down 15.5 per cent company-wide.
At the Cadia mine gold production was down from 180,223 ounces in the December quarter to 142,970 in the March quarter.
Copper was down from 18,263 tonnes to 15,424.
It has led to Newcrest slashing its forecast output at the Cadia mine for the 2018 financial year.
It had projected gold production of 680-780,000 ounces but this has now been cut to 550-600,000 ounces.
Newcrest’s forecast copper production at Cadia has been reduced from about 70,000 tonnes to 55-60,000 tonnes.
Newcrest managing director and CEO Sandeep Biswas said the company did not expect a return to full production at Cadia until the middle of the June quarter this year.
“We were challenged during the quarter with the embankment slump in the northern tailings facility [NTF] at Cadia,” he said.
“I have been particularly impressed by the efforts of our people at Cadia who have risen to the challenge and are striving to safely restore the operation to normal production.
“Group gold production in the March 2018 quarter was lower than the prior quarter, driven predominantly by reduced production following the NTF embankment slump on March 9.”
He said investigations into the cause of the collapse were continuing.
The report said the results of pre-feasibility studies into the Cadia East Mine and plant expansion were due to be released in August.
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