Patagonia Gold Plc now expects to produce 186,800 gold equivalent ounces from its Cap-Oeste gold-silver project in Argentina following a pit optimization and resource update.

The mine life of the open pit was also extended from two years to three years to July 2019, according to a Dec. 23 statement.

Previously, the company forecast production of 82,000 gold equivalent ounces from the project.

Total ore production from the mine is estimated at 2.03 million tonnes at 2.99 g/t of gold and 138 g/t of silver for a total recoverable estimated production of 136,000 ounces of gold and 3.2 million ounces of silver.

Patagonia has lowered the production forecast from Cap-Oeste to 69,800 gold equivalent ounces, 46,000 gold equivalent ounces and 68,000 gold equivalent ounces in each of 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. The guidance for 2016 was reduced to 3,000 gold equivalent ounces.

A review of the COSE underground mine also suggested a potential to extend the life of the Cap-Oeste heap leach pad by an additional 19 months.

The current scheduled mine life for COSE is 30 months, including 11 months of preproduction development, with a total of 104,000 tonnes of ore to be mined at an average grade of 14.85 g/t of gold and 775.4 g/t of silver for a contained 87.5 gold equivalent ounces.