- Red 5 (RED) has revised the production guidance for its Darlot Gold Mine due to a shortage of labourers
- Darlot is reliant on mining in remnant areas to fill its mill
- Labour shortages at the Great Western mine has resulted in minimal mining activity and delayed delivery of higher-grade ore to the Darlot mill
- Consequently, Red has dropped the production guidance for Darlot for financial year 2021, from 80,000-85,000 ounces to 74,000-78,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $2240-$2290 per ounce (/oz), compared to the previous amount of $2150–$2280/oz
- Managing Director Mark Williams said while excellent progress is being made on the King of the Hills project, the company continues to face challenges at Darlot
- Shares are trading in the grey at 19.5 cents each
Red 5 (RED) has revised the production guidance for its Darlot Gold Mine due to a shortage of labourers.
Darlot is located around 900 kilometres north-east of Perth in the Eastern Goldfields region of WA.
Production in Darlot underground is reliant on mining in remnant areas to fill the mill.
According to RED, the Darlot processing plant receives around half of its feed from the King of the Hills project, situated 80 kilometres south of Darlot.
However, since acquiring the Great Western deposit, also located south of the Darlot processing plant, RED implemented a transitional production strategy based on inclusion of the deposit into the Darlot Mining hub plan for financial year 2021.
In the March quarter, the company started mining at the Great Western mine but has been unable to ramp up mining activities at the planned rate due to a shortage of machine operators and truck drivers.
This has caused a delay in the delivery of higher-grade ore to the Darlot Mill into financial year 2022.
Subsequently, Red has dropped the production guidance for Darlot for financial year 2021, from 80,000-85,000 ounces to 74,000-78,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of $2240-$2290 per ounce (/oz), compared to the previous amount of $2150–$2280/oz.
Management is said to be undertaking a comprehensive review of the Darlot mining operations with production and cost guidance for financial year 2022 expected in the September 2021 quarter.
Red 5’s Managing Director, Mark Williams, said while excellent progress is being made on the King of the Hills project, the company continues to face challenges at Darlot.
“The difficulty of sourcing skilled labour for both Darlot and for our new Great Western mine has impacted our ability to achieve our FY21 production guidance,” he said.
Shares are trading in the grey at 19.5 cents each at 9:43am AEST.