Timmins Gold Corp. (TSE:TMM)(NYSE MKT:TGD)(AMEX:TGD) produced a record amount of gold for its third quarter, the company said Tuesday.
For the three months that ended September 30, the company produced 25,153 ounces of gold, and 13,857 ounces of silver from its San Francisco mine in Sonora, Mexico.
The gold ounces produced is up from 17,287 ounces in the year ago period, an increase of more than 45 per cent, due largely to improvements in process and "commitment to [its] expansion plan", the company said, which started late last year.
Modifications to the existing crushing circuit, changes in the company's blasting patterns and optimization of its heap leaching process led to the stronger results.
The company said that 40,490 ounces of gold were placed on heap leach pads, compared to 35,282 ounces a year earlier, with this number set to increase in the remainder of the year as the mine continues expansion.
The higher production led Timmins to sell over 48 per cent more gold in the latest third quarter than the same period last year.
The gold miner maintained Tuesday its production target of 100,000 ounces of gold for the year.
"We would like to congratulate our President Arturo Bonillas and his operating team for achieving our target of 25,000 ounces for the quarter," said Timmins CEO, Bruce Bragagnolo.
"The strong operating quarter was the result of a number of incremental process improvements. Completion of Stage 2 of our crusher expansion is expected to take us to over 22,000 t/d in Q4, and crushing capacity is scheduled to reach over 30,000 t/d early in 2013 as we continue with our expansion program."
Bragagnolo further said that the company continues to fund all of its operations, expansion and drilling from existing cash flows, as it believes it will continue to realize from current gold prices, generating "strong margins" and increased cash flow.
In the third quarter, the company processed an average of 15,439 tonnes per day of ore, up more than 4 per cent from the same quarter last year, while average grade rose over 10 per cent to 0.887 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
Focused solely in Mexico, Timmins Gold's San Francisco gold mine in Sonora, Mexico is an open pit heap leach operation, with forecast production at a rate in excess of 100,000 ounces of gold per year.
Last month, the company said its ongoing drill program could lead to a “significant increase” in the mineral resources at its San Francisco mine, as well as to the discovery of additional satellite deposits.
The company said that drilling continues to extend and expand the mineralization at San Francisco, which is comprised of two pits, the larger San Francisco pit and the La Chicharra pit located approximately 1.5 kilometres to the west.
A total of 31,680 metres in 166 holes were drilled from February until the end of June. Drilling is ongoing at the site with four reverse circulation rigs and one core drill rig working on site.
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