Timmins Gold Corp. (TSE:TMM) reported Thursday preliminary production results for its fiscal first quarter, with gold sales rising 59% year-over-year.
For the three months ending June 30, the company, which produces from its San Francisco gold mine in Sonora, Mexico, sold 17,965 ounces of gold, compared to 11,319 ounces a year earlier.
The mine, which began commercial production in April of 2010, produced 16,676 gold ounces and 9,089 silver ounces during the latest period, in line with its own expectations, Timmins said.
Last month, the company tested the expansion of its crushing system to 18,000 tonnes of ore per day and since the beginning of August, the company has been quickly reaching this expected target level.
During the first quarter, the company processed an average of 13,616 tonnes of ore per day, a 37% climb over the year-ago quarter. The company mined a total of 5.89 million tonnes during the latest period, up 18% from the first quarter of 2010.
“We are very pleased with progress to date as we look forward to the benefit from the increased crushing capacity of 18,000 tonnes per day as it will allow the mine to operate at an annual production rate of 100,000 ounces of gold per year,” said CEO, Bruce Bragagnolo.
“We are also in the process of updating our NI 43-101 mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates which when completed will incorporate approximately 85,000 meters of drilling at the San Francisco mine since last July.”
According to the latest study, the open pit heap leach operation has an expected life of mine cash cost of approximately US$489 per ounce.
