LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Metals and minerals producer Xtract Resources on Thursday confirmed a "substantial" improvement in current quarter alluvial mining contractor gold production to date at the Manica concession.
The AIM-traded company said it is continuing to address "key areas of performance" in respect to alluvial mining at the project, based on its operations at the site over the last eight months, and that current production has outstripped that of previous quarters with two weeks still remaining.

Colin Bird, executive chairman of Xtract Resources, said: "The continued overall improvement in alluvial gold production from the prior quarter shows pleasing progress and we hope to build on this and look forward to reporting our Q2 production in mid-July."

Xtract Resources said its hard rock collaboration agreement at the site with Omnia Mining has uncovered concealed extensions to hard rock exposure, which have had samples extracted and sent for assaying.

"We are currently in the process of identifying more hard rock mining positions irrespective of whether the crop is oxide transition or sulphide and concurrently evaluating the cost and time of operating the plant to treat all gold mineralisation types. The co-ownership of an all-purpose plant will position the collaboration agreement very strongly in the Manica area," said Bird.

The firm is also reviewing contractor proposals for the western portion of the Manica concession, but Bird suggested the company may divide the concession into North-South halves instead.

The executive chairman said this is due to the fact that the river beds and terraces require different processing plant configurations.

As such, the company is also investigating upgrading its current plant to feed all types of oxidation, from oxides to sulphides.

As of 1508 BST, Xtract Resources' shares were down 0.37% at 1.35p.

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