Quarterly production expected to climb sharply as spring and summer weather warms the heap leach pad at Victoria Gold's mine in Canada's North.

Victoria Gold Corp. April 10 announced that its Eagle Mine in the Yukon produced 29,580 ounces of gold during the first quarter of 2024, which is about 21% less than the first three months of last year.

Despite starting off well below the pace to produce the roughly 175,000 oz projected for this year, the company is confident that increased gold recoveries from the heap leach pad during the warmer summer and fall months will ensure production guidance is reached.

"While quarterly gold production is down year-over-year, the summer and fall seasons are our strongest operating periods and we expect to achieve 2024 gold production guidance of 165,000 to 185,000 oz and cost guidance of US$1,450 to US$1,650 per oz of gold sold," said Victoria Gold President and CEO John McConnell.

Up until last year, Victoria refrained from stacking ore on the heap leach pad at Eagle during the first three months of each year due to the cold weather in the Yukon. Instead, the company took this time to carry out maintenance and other activities at the mine.

During the first three months of last year, the first year of year-round ore stacking, Victoria placed 2.1 million metric tons of ore averaging 0.86 grams per metric ton gold on the heap leach pad.

This year, Eagle Mine crews stacked 2 million tons of ore on the heap leach pad averaging 0.63 g/t gold. The 27% lower grades were the largest contributor to less gold poured during the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year.

Victoria attributes the lower grades to normal mine sequencing of the Eagle orebody and says the gold grades and recoveries are in line with what is expected based on the Eagle reserve model.

Based on company guidance, Eagle Mine is expected to produce an additional 135,000 to 155,000 oz of gold before the end of 2024.

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