Alio Gold Provides 2018 Gold Production
At San Francisco fourth quarter gold production was 10,292 ounces and full year production was 53,990 ounces. Following a full technical review of the operations that commenced in September 2018 progress was made on reducing the dilution that was occurring in the more narrow, discontinuous zones of Phases 6, 7 and 8 of the San Francisco pit. Further engineering work is ongoing to optimize the life of mine plan, in particular to bring forward the satellite La Chicharra pit. While this work is ongoing, the mine has begun processing low grade stockpile material through the crushing circuit and has stopped mining in the San Francisco pit. There are sufficient stockpiles to operate at full capacity throughout 2019 (as at July 1, 2018, the low-grade stockpile consisted of approximately 7.2 million tonnes of 0.26 g/t gold material (60,200 contained ounces). Gold production at San Francisco is expected to remain consistent with current production levels for at least the first half of 2019.