Canada's Eldorado Gold (TSX:ELD)(NYSE:EGO) increased its full-year production guidance to 330,000-340,000 ounces of gold at $580-$630 per ounce from the previous 290,000-330,000 ounces of gold predicted for 2018.
In a press release, the Vancouver-based miner said that the expected growth would be driven by Kisladag, its flagship gold mine in Turkey, which saw increased production due to improved leach kinetics and placement of ore in early 2018 on an inter-lift liner.
"Since start-up of the Kisladag operation in 2006 approximately 145 million tonnes of material has been placed on the leach pad, at an average grade of 1.01 g/t. Production from leach operation has totaled approximately 2.88 million ounces of gold and the remaining book inventory is 61,100 ounces of gold. This leaves approximately 1.77 million ounces of contained gold in the pad. Historically this gold has been deemed not recoverable based on past metallurgical test work. However, we have progressed efforts to profitably extract a small portion of this contained gold. Based on the results of those efforts to date, the Kisladag production guidance for 2018-2020 is being increased by 40,000-45,000 ounces," the media brief explains.
Gold production also grew at Eldorado's Efemcukuru mine in western Turkey and Olympias in northern Greece, the latter accomplishing its first year of commercial production and yielding decreasing operating costs compared to the first quarter of 2018.
The rise of the production guidance also includes 3,134 pre-commercial ounces from Lamaque, the company's underground gold project in Val-d'Or, Quebec, whose development is said to be moving ahead of schedule.
For the second quarter of 2018, the company reported 94,224 ounces of gold sold, a hike of 37,000 ounces when compared to the second quarter of 2017.
Despite these positive production results, Eldorado announced that consolidated operating costs in the quarter were higher year on year due to increased costs on a per ounce basis at Kisladag.
While cash operating costs averaged $484 per ounce in the second quarter of 2017, for the same period of 2018 the average was of $587 per ounce.