Red 5 Ltd. will put the processing plant at its Siana gold project in the Philippines on temporary standby by the end of January due to delays in the processing of the environmental compliance certificate, or ECC, required for the construction of the mine's long-term tailings storage facility, the company said Jan. 19.

Greenstone Resources Corp., the company's affiliated arm in the Philippines, was informed by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau on Jan. 11 that it recommended to the Environmental Management Bureau for the requested ECC amendment, submitted in July 2016, to be processed.

However, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is in the midst of completing an audit of operating mining companies in the Philippines over the past six months, delaying the approval of the revised ECC despite being cleared to continue operations.

As a result, the company will reduce the overhead and operating costs of the project, which may include temporary reduction of personnel pending the resumption of milling operations.

Meanwhile, Red 5 also projected its gold sales for the first quarter to be in the range of 5,000 ounces to 7,000 ounces.