Following a successful collaboration with Stratum AI, St Barbara has boosted the annual gold production at Simberi to between 70–75,000 ounces.
The partnership saw St Barbara use Stratum’s artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithms to identify carbon in leach (CIL) treatable sulphides that would have previously been considered unsuitable.
With this new knowledge, St Barbara has been able to increase Simberi’s annual gold production to 70–75,000 ounces, up from the previous 60–70,000 ounces.
“The work achieved with Stratum AI has been highly effective in enabling the Simberi team to delineate more ore, which can be treated with the existing CIL plant,” St Barbara managing director and chief executive officer Andrew Strelein said.
“The increased confidence built from the practical application of the AI work in the last quarter has given us the confidence to reclassify our material types under this new method and add 143,000 ounces of material that can be processed through the existing circuit.”
St Barbara has now incorporated the use of the AI-based system into its mine plan for Simberi.
“This allows us to plan for a stable annual gold production target over the next three years of 70–75,000 ounces in the lead up to transition to production of a gold concentrate from the sulphide ores,” Strelein said.
St Barbara has had a strong year at Simberi, boosting its production by a third in the March quarter.
Gold sales for the quarter saw a 20 per cent boost to a total 18,016 ounces at average realised price of $3178 per ounce.
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