Victoria Gold Corp. announced on April 5 its Q1 2023 gold production report showing 37,619 ounces of gold produced during the first quarter of the year. This quarter’s report shows a 54.4% increase from Q1 2022’s report with just 24,358 ounces generated. The company explained how the Q1 2023 plan for operations involved ramping up the heap leach pad to full stacking of ore because prior to this year operations had to keep stacking to a minimum due to cold temperatures.
“During the first quarter, we successfully demonstrated the feasibility of year-round stacking on the heap leach pad,” John McConnell, the president and CEO of Victoria Gold explained. “This was the best Q1 performance for the Eagle Gold Mine since operations commenced with strong gold production and ore tonnage stacked on the heap leach pad.”
With Q1 2023’s performance output, the company has now proven the heap leach pad’s ability to produce year-round stacking of ore. The technical feasibility and operational achievability of this news means huge potential in the near future for Victoria Gold.
Victoria Gold Corp. is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, though its core holding is the 100% owned Dublin Gulch property in central Yukon, about 230 miles north of Whitehorse. The property offers year-round accessibility within Yukon Energy’s electrical grid. Dublin Gulch contains both the Eagle Gold Mine and the Olive Gold Deposits.
The Eagle Gold Mine is the biggest gold mine in Yukon’s history, with 2.6 million ounces of gold as of December 31, 2022, with 124 million tons grading at 0.65 grams per ton. Victoria Gold believes the Eagle Gold Mine has the potential for additional mining life extensions at depth and strike with an excellent exploration prospective including the Lynx and Raven priority targets, to name a couple.
Victoria Gold’s Dublin Gulch property covers 344 square miles, with both the Eagle Gold Mine and Olive deposits showing Proven and Probable reserves of 3.3 million ounces of gold from 155 million tons of ore at a grade of 0.65 grams per ton. The company estimates the Eagle and Olive deposits to host 227 million tons at 0.67 grams per ton, equaling 4.67 million ounces of Measured and Indicated gold.
The Dublin Gulch property already showed promising output levels and growth opportunities, so the recent output reports only offer more excitement for the company, given the now dissolved roadblocks.
The production rates in Q1 2023 were still seasonally lower than other quarters, as expected, with no current side slope leaching activities. The lower-than-planned stacking rates in Q4 2022 also impacted the recent quarter’s output. Despite these bottlenecks, gold production in Q1 2023 managed to offer 55% higher returns than the same quarter last year.
The tons stacked on the heap leach pad were 133% higher in Q1 2023 than Q1 2022. The total tons mined figure showed 44% improved production in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Waste mined also increased in the recent quarter compared to in the beginning of 2022.
In the company’s press release, McConnell explained that the grade and metallurgical recovery “continue to reconcile well” with the Eagle reserve model. The Eagle Gold Mine shows promising production rates in the near future with no signs of depletion.
So, what does this news mean in relation to the greater gold industry? Victoria Gold is not the only mining corporation escalating operations to hike production levels. Numerous organizations and government entities have expanded resources and production protocols to improve output rates in order to meet the rising gold demand levels that seem to have no ceiling.
For example, Spain recently allocated an additional $43 million to The Spanish National Coin Factory (FNMT) to increase gold coin minting to meet growing bullion demand rates. Typically, the nation only allocates around 10 million.
In late March, Aris Mining began an exploration program to expand mining output at its Segovia Operations in Columbia. Conroy Gold and Natural Resources also recently began a drilling program at its Clay Lake target in Ireland to discover potential high-yielding gold reserves.
Major organizations like Victoria Gold want to increase supply because the demand level will not stop soaring. In 2022, global gold demand reached the highest level since 2011. Central banks purchased more gold in 2022 than ever before (on record).
More investors, organizations, and government entities need gold to protect their purchase power as the U.S. dollar fails, so the mining companies are trying to keep up with this need. Gold is becoming more powerful by the day. As always, investors should consult their financial advisors before investing.
