Rye Patch Gold Announces Q1 2018 Results

Rye Patch Gold Corp. (TSXV:RPM) reported their Q1 2018 production results at the company’s flagship Florida Canyon mine in Pershing County, Nevada.

Highlights are as follows:

• Produced 10,844 ounces of gold and 5,457 ounces of silver;
• Achieved a price of gold sales of US$1,332.53 per ounce;
• Mined 1,856,400 tons of ore;
• Crushed 2,151,900 tons of ore;
• Placed 22,300 ounces of gold on the pad; and
• Realized a waste to ore stripping ratio of 1.16.

As quoted in the press release:

Gold production dipped in January and February associated with managing the water balance during the ramp up of the second Carbon-in-Column (CIC) plant, and unplanned equipment failures in the refinery.  Gold production rebounded in March with the production of 4,540 ounces of gold.  The Company is forecasting between 15,000 and 16,000 ounces of gold in Q2 2018.

Q1 started with the ramp up of the second CIC plant which increases the solution application capacity by 67 percent.  The successful ramp up and water balance process was completed in early February and results are encouraging with increased application rates being realized.

The CIC plant recovered 12,053 ounces of gold to carbon.  Several issues occurred in the refinery as older equipment was brought back to commercial production levels. Challenges with the furnace, thermal fluid heater and regeneration kiln were solved, and the equipment is working at design specifications.  The result of these refinery issues is deferral of approximately 1,500 ounces of gold production.

Overall, winter weather was mild for January and February; however, March turned in to a heavy precipitation month – the 4^th wettest on record.  The high moisture slowed crushing and delayed mining during the month.  However, ore crushed, and gold ounces stacked to the pad were only 4 percent and 5 percent below plan respectively for the quarter as feed was made up from the ore and crush stockpiles.

Waste mining increased slightly as access to the Main area was initiated in mid-February.  The Main area contained more fill material than expected compared to the resource block model.  The additional material increased the strip ratio to 1.16 for the quarter.  The majority of the fill is now removed, and ore is exposed.

For the quarter, the Company sold 10,637 ounces of gold at an average sales price of US$1,332.53 per ounce.  During Q1, gold had a low of US$1,307.75 per ounce and a high of US$1,354.95 per ounce with an average price of US$1,329.28 per ounce. Rye Patch gold sales slightly beat the average gold price for the quarter.

In addition, the Company sold 5,457 ounces of silver at a realized sales price of US$16.76 per ounce.

Click here to read the full Rye Patch Gold Corp. (TSXV:RPM) press release.