Allied Gold has poured its first gold at its 100%-owned Simberi Gold Project in Papua New Guinea.

The Simberi Gold Project is in the New Ireland Province of eastern Papua New Guinea, on an island 60km north-west of the Lihir Gold Project, which hosts a 40 million ounce gold resource. The standard Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) processing plant has been progressively commissioned in the past few weeks and is due to reach its full design throughput of 2.2 million tonnes per annum by the end of this month.

Simberi is scheduled to produce an average of 84,000 ounces of gold per year over a mine life of at least eight years. Thus far there have been several gold bars poured with a total of 2392 ounces of gold produced.

Metallurgical recovery rates are meeting budget estimates and initial head grade reconciliation data suggests that there is potential for grade outperformance.

Allied Gold executive chairman Mark Caruso says: “We are proud of our effort to commission a significant gold mining operation, against a backdrop of labour shortages and input price pressures.”

Allied Gold is now focussing on drill testing of the numerous targets identified on the nearby Tatau and Big Tabar islands.

In parallel with this intensive exploration effort, engineering is already well advanced on plans to expand production at Simberi by around 60% to 135,000 ounces/year.

www.alliedgold.com.au