Sumatra Copper & Gold Plc has temporarily suspended open-pit mining activities at its Tembang gold-silver operation in southern Sumatra, Indonesia, and expects it to restart in the fourth quarter.
As a result, the full year production guidance was lowered to 37,500 to 42,500 gold equivalent ounces, from 45,000 to 55,000 gold equivalent ounces previously.
The company said June 1 it completed mining of the Berenai open-pit mine this month, and mining of the remaining reserves contained within the lower grade Asmar orebody will be only marginally profitable at the current gold price.
Mining the Asmar pit will be feasible after the Tembang site is connected to the state-owned electricity grid later in the year, which will result in considerable reductions to power charges, from 26 U.S. cents per Kwh to about 9 cents per Kwh.
"The lower processing costs from grid power and a new open pit mining arrangement will allow the Asmar pit to be optimized at a lower cut-off grade," Sumatra wrote.
