K92 has smashed production targets in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024 at its Kainantu gold mine in PNG, despite a temporary suspension in operations.
A non-industrial incident suspended underground operations at the mine on March 10, affecting the rest of the month, but the company said operations are now back up and running as normal.
K92 welcomed 24,389 ounces (oz) of gold production over the quarter, 1.4 million pounds of copper and 35,650 oz of silver.
An expansion to the company’s processing plant has continued to exceed throughput expectations with an 11 per cent increase on the same period in 2023, bringing the processed total to 130,632 tonnes.
“I am especially proud of the team for delivering a strong first quarter, exceeding the Q1 budget production and delivering one of our strongest quarters to date,” K92 director and chief executive officer John Lewins said.
“We certainly plan to leverage the operating flexibility provided by the additional process plant capacity over the course of 2024, as we make up ground resulting from the temporary suspension of underground operations.”
K92 carried out significant expansions to its Kainantu in 2023, setting the miner up to boost its production into the future.
“Concurrent with our transformative expansion works, we also remain focused on exploration, both near-mine and regionally, with very encouraging results to date, particularly from Arakompa in late-February reporting high-grade drill results,” Lewins said.
Arakompa one of several prospective vein systems withing the Kainantu vein field.
K92 said mining is mainly focused on the Kora vein system, consisting of two dominant veins, and the Judd vein system consisting of four known veins with one vein being mined.
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